HPMAXBTVS
by texaswookie
Summary: Hp trio in Sunnedale following lead on Horcux and need to get into Library to check some books, Halloween episode Both groups dress as killing heroes from MARVEL and end up keeping skills and abilities. Scoobies join trio in England againnst Voldemorrt
1. Chapter 1

**Halloween: HP MAX BTVS**

Hp trio in Sunnedale following lead on Horux and need to get into Library to check some books. Scoobies have kid duty. Both groups dress as killing heroes from comics and end up keeping skills and abilities for some reason. Scoobies leave hellmouth in Kendra's hands and join Hp trio in their quest. BS 1st Spiderwoman/ XHPunisher/ WRBlack Widow/HPWolverine/RWMoon Knight/HG Psylocke.

This was a part of my backburner series but I figured with some of the demands that i would at least try it out. The updates on this story will be slow folks I'm usually writing a couple sentances between classses on this one so don't expect quick updates.

Disclaimer I own nothing here so try not to sue me and I think we all know that BTVS is a product of Whedon's mind, the Potter characters are property of JKR, and the Marvel characters are the property of Marvel Comics. Anyone who thinks differently please send me a check the next time you buy one something from these people the royalties check keeps getting lost in the mail.

* * *

Harry sighed as he looked at the innocent looking building his black hair ruffled in the weak Californian wind. Getting to the point where they were now had been a lot harder than he had thought it might be. They had been forced to stow away on a cargo ship and then they had been forced to hitchhike or walk across the USA until they could reach this part of the world. They had also ridden on some muggle buses, but they to be careful that Ron was kept silent during those rides. It had taken them a lot longer than any of them liked, but they had finally arrived in Sunneydale California. A little outpost that seemed to be the most typical muggle place that Harry thought that maybe he had found the American version of Privet drive.

Their search throughout London had brought them to this lonely place where everyone seemed to be doing their best to act as if everything they saw and did was completely normal. Ron had made a number of blunders already, but instead of the unsure and suspicious looks that they had been afraid of they had merely gotten shakes of the head and mutterings of kids today. From what Hermione had been able to find out after Tom Riddles employment with Borgins and Burkes he had enough money saved up to go on a trip to explore the world like a number of rich purebloods did after their graduations. According to the sources that they had questioned Riddle had made a stop somewhere in this town and come out stronger than when he had entered it. It made sense then that Voldemort might leave behind one of his Horuxes in a place where he had become even more powerful than he already was.

Hermione had asked around, and they had learned of a dimensional weakness in the center of what appeared to be five different ley lines that formed a pentagram that was centered in the town. After consulting the various books, Hermione had found where all of these energies came together. Ron had been nearly unbearable since they had learned that it was a muggle school even going as far to tell the others that he always knew there was something wrong with muggle school. The others had ignored him, as they had been more interested in what was supposedly inside the school. According to the people that they had questioned their was quiet a collection of books on the Occult.

This library was supposed to be full of some of the best books in town on magic their sources had told them. Hermione was skeptical about their being anything of real worth in the collection at a muggle school, but had agreed that a search was required. Ron had gotten quiet a tongue lashing when he had commented that she just wanted to get back inside of a library. The trio expected that most of the collection would be the muggle ideas on how magic work without any real spell books, but still it couldn't hurt to look. Particularly since there was a good chance that there might be a Horux somewhere in there, and if they were really lucky they might even find something on how to destroy a Horux.

The trio needed a plan on how to slip into the school without anyone the wiser though. The invisibility cloak would allow for two of them at the most to slip in and unless they had Harry take Hermione then come back for Ron it would take longer than they really had to do the job. There was also the chance that someone might see them and they might get noticed. Ron had thought that they could just stun anyone that was in the library and do what they needed to do and then memory charming the people in there to forget them. Hermione had suggested that they pose as transfer or exchange students and that way they could come and go from the library as they pleased. Ron had shot that idea down when he asked if they would have to spend time in muggle classes as well. Harry had said that they could use Halloween as a cover and slip into the building at night and do their searching then. The others had reluctantly nodded, though Hermione did remind them that this was only going to help them for a couple of nights afterward they would need to think up something else. The plan unfortunately meant that no one could see what they really looked like. While it was true that they could use some self-transfiguration spells on themselves, a mask or something might work better, which is why they were currently on their way toward a Costume shop called Ethan's.

Hermione had approved the idea saying that they could even explain away their wands and any magic that they might be forced to perform that night away by the muggles as they would think it was some elaborate Halloween trick or other.

The trio ducked into the Halloween store and began rooting around for masks and other ways to disguise themselves. They were near the back and couldn't help but overhear the conversation of a guy and two girls as the blonde admired a costume dress. "I prefer my women in spandex." The guy said smiling innocently at the blonde that was regarding the dress.

Harry chuckled at the bold statement. "Not to mention that they look like they can take care of themselves when they're dressed in spandex as opposed to those frilly dress things which just scream damsel in distress."

"Exactly," the dark haired guy said in agreement as he turned to look at the figure that was behind him.

Hermione regarded the fancy looking gown before turning to the blonde with a curious expression. "Aren't you a little old to believe in fairy tale endings and happily ever after?"

The blonde blushed slightly at this till she noticed the witches' gear in the brunette's hands. "I don't know, aren't you a little old to be dressing up as a good little witch?" She shot back at her with a look.

"Perhaps I can be of some help before either of you burn up or attack each other." An amused voice from behind them all said. The three magic users barely managed to restrain themselves from drawing their wands as a man with slightly graying hair came up behind them.

"You know, I'm beginning to think that we're being slowly but surely taken over by the British." Xander cracked, "I mean seriously, how many British speaking people are there in this town these days anyways?"

"You know of other British speaking people in this town?" Harry asked with surprise. He had thought that they had just run into the only other British speaking for several miles.

"Yeah sure." The other teen said shrugging his shoulders. "The librarian at our school is British too." He added as if it was nothing.

"Your Librarian is British as well?" Hermione asked nervously, swallowing back anything else she might have to say about this revelation.

"That is what he said." The blonde said slipping between them. "You got something else you need to ask?" She asked looking at the girl as if expecting a challenge.

"Uh no." Hermione said in a daze.

"Ahem," the storeowner said drawing all of their attention back towards him causing blushes from both groups. "As I was saying before you got distracted. He said to them all dryly. "Perhaps I can be of some help." He undid the clasp on the dress and held it up to the blonde as she looked into a full-length mirror. "For you there lies the hidden princess." He then turned to Hermione who had only a handful of traditional magical items in her hands. "And as for you." He said as he placed the nylon witches hat on Hermione's head. "We have the beautiful and stunning enchantress."

The two girls stuttered slightly, but before they could form any words the jokesters from both groups snorted at the man and what he had said. "Bloody hell mate. Don't you think that you're laying it on the two of them a bit thick?" The red headed one asked, his blue eyes shining in amusement.

"Yeah, you'd have to be either pretty thick headed or pretty empty headed to fall for those kinds of lines." Xander added with a chuckle. "Unless of course you're really that desperate or it's been that long since you talked to a pretty girl."

"That, or he can't find any his own age who would even bother to give him the time of the day." Ron added with a grin.

"And I suppose that you can come up with better costumes then?" The man snapped at the pair of them.

"How about heroes that got the job done no matter what?" Xander asked, meeting the storeowner's challenge. "And not the really super powered kinds either, but the ones that have to deal with as much grief and crap as we do here in the real world and most of the times they win their fights that they're usually out match in by skill and blind luck?"

"And do any of you just know what it is that you would need for such costumes?" Ethan challenged, hoping that the boy would take a hint and shut up already. He was sure that Janus would find it particularly amusing if the Slayer, as a protector would be in need of a protector on this night.

Xander grinned at the man. "Sure that would not be a problem at all." His eyes scanned the rows of costumes before his eyes lit on one. "Here you go Buff." He said as he pulled out a red and yellow costume. "The original Spiderwoman costume." He explained to his friend. "She was supposed to be the ultimate weapon according to some people. Too bad for them she had a bit of a bad habit though."

"Really, and what might that bad habit be?" Buffy questioned him curiously.

"She had this horrid little problem of actually thinking for herself." Xander said, giving a mock shudder as if he had described something awful. "You'll need a dark haired wig to make the look though." He added. "Preferably black."

"Right." Buffy said, as she looked the costume over with a critical eye. It would show her curves off and let Angel get a look at what he could have if he stopped playing games with her she mused.

"Also, think of the blood vessel that Snyder will probably blow when he sees you in that." Xander added with a grin. "He didn't make a costume do and don't list after all so you can wear that and throw that little fact in the trolls face."

"You had me earlier, but now you've got me o so sold." Buffy said with a grin and gave her friend a quick hug. The guy gave a goofy grin and returned the hug.

"Ultimate weapon huh?" Harry said as he looked at the costume the girl was holding. "You wouldn't happen to be able to find a guy version of that would you?" He half-heartedly joked in a slightly sarcastic manner.

"Lets see, your short, dark haired and I bet that your temper is a lot like your height."

"Hey!" Harry growled in annoyance, while his friends snickered at him.

"You got to admit that he's got you down pretty well mate." Ron chuckled as he slapped his friend on the back.

"Good, glad to hear that." Xander said as he pulled another brightly colored costume out. "I give you the Wolverine." He explained to the oblivious wizard. "Short, quick, deadly and efficient. The best there is at what he does and what he does ain't pretty. The guy is probably equipped with more secrets than most people would like to believe."

"All right," Harry said as he took the costume not sure that there was much else he could do. He placed the long white beard back in the shelf where he had found it. He looked the costume over it was a yellow or gold color with blue and black in various other parts and a red belt with a giant X for a buckle. There were blue gloves with small areas on the knuckles for something and a half mask that would cover the top side of his face well.

"Now for you two girls." Xander said turning to the other female members of the group rubbing his hands in anticipation. "Will, with those eyes and hair you would make a great Mary Jane or Jean Grey." He told his friend honestly. "However, since we're going the whole dark hero route then you need something slightly different than those paragons of virtue." He produced a shiny black bodysuit from a rack and some bracelets and a belt from a bin of various odds and ends. "I give you the seductive, dangerous and very beautiful Black Widow the Russian super spy supreme." He said theatrically.

Willow blushed and mumbled something, and a smiling Buffy took the ghost costume out of the hands of her friend and placed it back in its rack as if nothing was happening.

"And now for you." Xander said turning to Hermione who had a deer caught in the headlights look as she watched the guy's eyes rove up and down her body. He peered particularly hard into her eyes before backing off from her. "You're the quiet prim and proper type right? Only problem is underneath all that good girl exterior is someone that gets off on the bad girl attitude and adrenaline rush." Hermione blushed even harder as she nodded in reluctant agreement.

"Whoa, how did you figure that one out?" Ron asked in disbelief.

"Simple really." Xander said shrugging a bit. "She's got all the classic bookworm attributes that I knows so well. But her eyes have a fire in there that looks kind of like the Buffsters, so I went with what I had and got lucky. You don't want people to think that about you all the time might I suggest that you have these two carry your books for you." Xander suggested with a grin, as he pointed to the book bag on Hermione's arm. "Willow uses me and Buffy has extra arms all the time."

"Hey! You trying to turn us into her pack mules mate?"

"Ron be quiet, I want to hear what kind of costume he can come up with." Hermione told her friend impatiently,

"Right." Xander said as his eyes scanned the costume racks till he spied a purple item. "Here we are!" He said happily. "The lovely and beautiful Psylocke, master ninja assassin and telepath. Raised to be the good girl, but has a wild streak a mile wide." He then plopped the costume in her hands along with a black wig for Buffy and a purple wig for Hermione.

"I don't know." Hermione said. "I mean its kind of revealing."

"Hey come on it could be worse." Buffy said with a grin. "You could have some sort of bikini combo. Take advantage of him while he's letting his comic boy thing go before the pervert side of him switches on." Hermione nodded, though she still looked unsure.

"And finally we have you." Xander said as he came down to Ron. Xander looked the guy over before nodding. "You're kind of like me aren't you? Not so much with the power or the skill, but you do what you got to do. We're the kind that if we ever do get some cool power or other it's more likely to be a curse than a blessing. I know just the thing, it'll take me a minute to find all of the pieces though." Xander said as he quickly ran around the store collecting a small bundle. He finally came back with a whole white outfit that had a cloak, mask, gloves; boot covers, a pair of toy rifles, and a half moon pendant. "Ladies and Brits! I give you Mark Spector the Moon Knight!" Xander said, as he slipped the mask and cloak on over the redheaded boy's head.

"And for yourself?" Ethan asked grudgingly, the boy had the gift of seeing the inner person instead of the façade that they normally hid behind. An extremely rare gift, all the more rare because unless he was mistaken the boy's gift wasn't mystical in nature at all but was completely natural. He wasn't too worried about that though as he was more interested in just what kinds of chaos such costumes as these would create tonight.

Willow grinned at them all. "He's the Punisher." She explained as she pulled a black shirt with a skull on it that Xander had been hiding behind his back. "Hurt his friends and family and he'll make you pay." Buffy looked skeptical for a moment before she nodded in agreement.

"So I guess it's the anti hero route for all of us tonight then?" Hermione questioned receiving nods from her two friends who were eyeing the costumes appreciatively.

"Yep, looks like it." Xander said with a grin at all of them and a mocking smirk at Ethan. "A whole band of heroes who aren't afraid to kill to save the lives of everybody else."

Ethan inwardly sighed before addressing the group. "Very well then is this what you all want then?" He asked them.

The group nodded and began paying for their things as Ethan rang them up. "Harry mate how, the hell am I supposed to pay for all of this stuff?" Ron hissed at his friend.

"Its to help us with our job, so I'll help out." Harry muttered at his friend.

"But."

"Shut it Ron." Harry hissed at his friend. "It's for a good cause." Harry growled as he took the pile of white items and guns and stacked his and Ron's stuff with Hermione's and paid for it all. "This has been interesting, I guess we'll see you." Harry said.

Ethan chuckled as he watched the group split up as they left. Tonight would be most interesting he thought. The last comments of the boy that had picked out the costumes had interested him. Heroes that killed when saving had quiet a it of potential for chaos. The potential chaos actually raised if they did something like killed an innocent while possessed. The combination of the blood of an innocent and chaos magic had so much potential that he could hardly wait to see what it was that would happen. It looks like of the two of them he would have the last laugh at the boy.

* * *

Dru gasped and screamed as she woke up. Spike was at her side in a moment as she raised her voice. "Easy there luv, easy." Spike soothed to his insane sire. "Its all right now. Just had a bit of a bad dream. Must have been that old man that you ate. Think we'll need to keep you away from the more aged types of food for a while and let your diet consist of some of the fresher and younger stuff for a while."

"No Spike, its changed it's all changed." The vampire seer whined at her childe. "The magic lion cubs have gone and changed it all. Made it so it won't be fun anymore." The vampiress tried to explain.

"Really, and how did they do that love?" Spike asked curiously. The vampire's curiosity had been raised after the warning he had been given by the seer earlier about something odd happening tonight of all nights, but now something big had changed it all it seemed. Now instead of laughing she was curled up into a ball how much could some wankers change things.

The vampire pouted at her protector. "The nasty slayer who stole daddy away from me won't be taught all sorts of manners like how to have a proper tea party. She's going to be a bright colored arachnid! The puny little kitten won't become an unthinking dog, but will become a jungle cat. The little sapling won't become a spirit she'll become a dancing killing tree."

"Well it don't sound all bad then right?" Spike said awkwardly trying to comfort her from the vision. "Those last two sound like they ought to be sort of interesting." He tried hoping that this was the right thing to say.

The vampire sobbed slightly. "There's more though Spike! The lighting cub will become the small man beast with claws forged from science. The brother cub will become an unwavering servant of the moon. Then there is the sage cub she'll become the mind ninja and go looking for the one who hurts the one she cares for." The vampire fussed for a few more minutes in Spikes arms. "We need to find the magic snake man that tells half truths and runs from death he'll help us." Dru said, before she finally passed out as the strain of the visions finally overtook her extremely weak body.

Spike just held her for a moment before easing her back onto the bed. He turned to one of his minions that had followed him in. "You there, I want you to go and keep an eye on the slayer and her pathetic little groupies. I want to know what it is that they're up to and who these magic lion cubs might be." Spike turned to look at his sire before noticing that the minion was still there. "What you still here? He asked as he looked at the vampire in disbelief. You waiting for an engraved invitation or something like that mate? Maybe I should find you some holy water to take a bath in." He threatened letting his game face show.

"Yes sir, I'm going sir." The vampire called out, making a run for the door before the blonde vampire decided to follow through on his threat.

Spike smirked as he watched the sodding idiot leave to go watch the Slayer. It was good being the big bad. The vampire thought as he returned to watch over Drusilla he had feeling that he would be here a while. Spike sat in a nearby arm chair and pulled a cigarette out and lit it and waited.

* * *

Sunnydale High

The trio watched the crowds of students as they began sorting out little children with who went with who. Ron listened intently as the guy that they had met and helped them with their costumes was talking to the children like he was issuing orders for a mission. He was even nodding along with the kids as the boy began giving off instructions on the best way to get candy. The boy was obviously a master at the art of acquiring candy on Halloween. The twins probably could learn a few things from him as well.

Hermione rolled her eyes as she saw that her friend was more intent on listening on how to get the best free candy instead of focusing on what they were supposed to be doing here. She was also a bit uncomfortable in the revealing outfit that she was currently wearing. "Ron," she hissed, "we don't have time for that, we don't want them to know why we're here."

"Huh? Oh right." The boy said a little bit disappointed that he wouldn't be able to take anymore notes on how best one could score on free candy.

Harry snickered at his friend and the way that he was being targeted by Hermione.

"Don't start Harry," she snapped at her other friend. Harry nodded in understanding. "Good, now Ron here you need to carry the pack," Hermione said as she tossed the pack to Ron.

"Me, why me?" Ron complained as he fumbled with the bag.

"Because you're the only one here who can hide it anywhere," Hermione growled, "does it look like I have anyplace where I can hide that?" She growled opening her arms to show off the purple skintight outfit that she was wearing that was closer to a one piece bathing suit than actual clothes as far as the conservative witch was concerned. She still wasn't sure how she had been talked into wearing this insane get up. She had also charmed her hair purple and managed straighten it long enough to last for a few hours though she doubted that it would last very long.

"Hey baby," a boy dressed as a pirate said, "would you like me to show you around? I'm sure that we could both show each other such interesting things." The boy said leering at the British teen.

"No, no thank you," a blushing Hermione said crossing her arms uncomfortably.

The boy not about to be deterred continued on as if he hadn't heard her. "We can view some of the great places that the school has after we're all done, who knows maybe I can even help you with your clothing problem to." The boy said with a smirk as his eyes ran up and down Hermione's body with a hungry look.

"Perhaps some other time," a now mortified Hermione said desperately wishing that she had something that she could cover herself up with. Unfortunately for her though there was no time to transfigure her clothes into something else as they were in the middle of the room where they could mingle without being noticed too much.

"You sure about that sweet thing? Cause I got to say that with you dressed like that it kind of lets me know what kind of a girl you really are." The boy said with a smirk before he began walking away.

Ron and Harry glared at the boy the moment his back was turned the boy seemed to have a problem walking. Hermione turned to look at him and smiled before nodding her thanks at her two friends who had both managed to cast the required spells to humiliate the muggle without drawing attention to themselves.

The group of friends began making their way around the hallway doing their best to stay as far away from a short balding man that appeared to be in charge. "That bloke looks like a cross between Filtch and Fudge," Ron muttered to his friends causing his friends to shake their heads at the way their friend was acting. The group slipped down into an unused hallway and made their way toward the library. The trio paused at the big double doors looking down to see that there was a light on underneath it.

"All right here's the plan," Harry said, "I'll take whatever's in front of us Ron you cover the left and Mione will cover the right."

"Sounds like a plan mate."

"Agreed, but hold off from firing until your close up," Hermione suggested, "they may not be expecting anything."

"Sounds like a plan," Harry nodded in agreement the three pushed the doors opened and walked their wands held at their sides as they moved in.

* * *

Giles looked up in surprise from his paperwork as three unknown teenagers entered his domain he was rather surprised to see the group. He almost never saw anyone in here besides Buffy and her friends. "Um hello, are you three lost? he questioned the group who were wearing ridiculous skin tight costumes, he really wondered how that young lady had managed to get away from her parents dressed like that. Not that some of Buffy or Cordellia's clothing was much better sometimes.

"I certainly hope so," the girl said, the man blinked in surprise at the British accent right before he was hit by a red beam of light that caused him to fall down. "Quick," Hermione told her friends, "we need to tie him up before he wakes up."

The boys nodded and rushed over to the man as Hermione conjured some ropes so that they could tie him up. After they were sure that he was secure the group began searching the room for any kind of magical items that might have clues to what he was doing here or about Horux's.

The three spent the next fifteen minutes scrounging through the various stacks of books. "I knew that this was just too bloody easy," Ron grumbled in annoyance. "I mean would it have been too much to ask for things to be easy? No, we got to find the blasted thing or something about it and hope that nothing on it tries to kill us."

"You're not helping all that much with your complaining Ron." Hermione snapped at the redhead in annoyance, "why don't you try looking? You can complain about it all later."

"Hey guys over here," Harry called out to the bickering pair, "I think I may have found something." The others joined their friend to see what he had found. The raven haired wizard was standing awe struck inside some kind of cage looking inside a trunk. The other two walked inside with him and peered in and looked in confusion as they noticed the pile of assorted weapons that were inside along with various old books that looked like they might have come out of the Black library, or Hogwarts restricted section.

"Incredible," Hermione muttered as she eyed the various books. "Some of these books are lost to the wizarding world or are supposed to only be myths yet here they are just lying in the library of a muggle high school. That's simply unbelievable even if it is the hellmouth."

"Yeah we're all so impressed," Ron groused, "but does any of this stuff help us?" He questioned as he struggled to lift a battle ax that was lying in the box. "Hey, I think this is a goblin made weapon." The boy said happily. "It might actually be worth something."

"Great, can we get back to the possible Horux that might be here?" Harry questioned them shaking his head at his friend's distractibility.

Hermione had the decency to blush at this as she tore herself away from looking at the books. "Err right, well this way isn't working we'll be at it all night at this rate."

"So what do you suggest, it's not like you can just ask the librarian after all." Ron snarked at the witch.

Hermione looked over at the unconscious man that they had tied to a chair. She bit her lip nervously before turning to look at the boys. "Actually Ron that might not be such a bad idea and if he doesn't cooperate we can always stun him again.

"What are you serious Hermione?" A shocked Ron questioned. "He's a bloody Death Eater even if he agrees to help us there's no way that you can trust a git like him to be honest with us.

"Do we even know if he is a Death Eater?" Harry questioned before the two could get started at each other again.

The two stared at him disbelief. "What, you need to see his sodding Dark Mark to be sure mate?" Ron asked rolling his eyes at his friend.

"It would let us know how much we can trust him," Hermione pointed out. "For all we know it could be that shop owner that is the Death Eater or it could be they are both here to get away from the Death Eaters."

"Fine," Ron grumbled, "but if he attacks us I get to say I told you so."

"Deal," Harry said nodding in agreement.

The three turned to the man the boys gave Hermione an expectant look and the witch waved her wand vanishing the man's jacket and vest. "You can roll his sleeves up to look," she told them pointedly. Harry nodded and quickly rolled his left sleeve up.

"Well?" Ron questioned.

"He's not wearing a dark mark. Harry said as he examined the arm he's got something on his arm but it sure isn't the Dark Mark." He turned to look at Hermione. "You might want to look at this thing it looks like some kind of Ancient Rune."

Hermione nodded and bent down and looked at the odd shaped mark that the man had tattooed on him, the two boys each held their wands on the man should he wake up and try anything. "I don't recognize the mark, she admitted, I don't think it's an ancient rune but it does have some magic in it. Maybe it's someone else's mark, She suggested, "or maybe it means something else entirely. It would take time for me to understand just what exactly it means."

"That's alright Hermione we'll figure something else out." Harry said tiredly, "how about you wake him up though so that we can get to the bottom of this."

The girl nodded and waved her wand at the man watching as the man started awake. "Uhh.. Who are you?" The man questioned.

"We were going to ask you that actually," Hermione said, "we were also going to ask just what that tattoo on your arm means as well."

Giles glanced down and saw that the mark on his arm that he went to great lengths to keep covered from all people was on display. "That's a personal item," the Watcher said stonily not wanting to talk about his misspent youth and what he had done with a bunch of children that were trying to scare him. "I don't suppose that you would mind horribly in telling me what this is all about?"

"As if you didn't already know," the boy dressed in white complained, "where's the stuff you been hiding for You-Know-Who?"

"Whom?" Giles asked in confusion, wondering what these children thought he was.

"You know, your Dark Lord." The other boy said stonily.

"I'm afraid that you have me mistaken for someone else, I have nothing to do with any Dark Lords. What's more I have nothing to do with wand wavers either." Giles said noticing the stick that the girl was holding in her hand.

"Then what are you doing here?" The girl questioned.

"I could ask you the same thing, since I notice that you don't exactly belong here I happen to know that there aren't any British students here."

"And how would you know that?"

"Well it helps that I'm a member of the faculty." Giles snapped out in annoyance, "I also happen to be the librarian and have to give all of the transfers the school books amongst other things so what is it that you want?"

"Think we can trust him?" The boy in the half mask asked the girl.

The girl looked uncertain. "Perhaps, but we might still need to be careful."

"I wouldn't," the one in white huffed at his companions crossing his arms and staring at the Watcher. Giles was sure that the figure was glaring at him however the mask that covered his whole face took away quiet a bit of the power it might otherwise have had.

The other two seemed lost in thought neither of them seeming for or against the idea of releasing him from the chair. The more the Watcher watched the group the more sure he was that they simply didn't know whom to trust he turned to the pair and was about to implore them when they all seemed to somehow change right before his eyes it was as if something had changed them right before his eyes. Giles watched in disbelief as they all seemed to gain muscle that hadn't seemed to be there a few moments ago.

"What the flaming heck just happened?" The shortest member of the group growled, his voice having changed to a much deeper and raspier sound than it had been before.

"Not a bloody clue Wolverine," the girl or maybe woman said as she began focusing on the Watcher. "Perhaps we should question our guest here."

"Sounds like a plan to me," the cloaked figure said as he drew a deadly looking knife from out of his belt.

"Can it Moon Knight," the one known as Wolverine grumbled as he turned to look at Giles. "Now then bub, how about ya tell me what the hell is goin on before I decide ta let these two go at ya?"

"I wish that I could," Giles said as he struggled against his bonds, "however I am afraid that I am as much in the dark as you are. One moment I going over the books next thing I know is that you lot have tied me up and are debating on whether or not to question me about something then just when it seems like some of you have come to a descision you all gain some muscle and new attitudes and we seem to be starting all over again. Off hand judging by the way your acting I would guess that there is a possession of some sort going on."

"Psylocke?"

"He's telling the truth or as near to the truth as he can figure it, and I can hear someone that shouldn't be there in my head." The woman said as her hand flashed a bright pink color. "It will take time to figure out precisely what is going on."

"Agreed," Wolverine said.

"Now will you untie me?" Giles questioned.

"Not until we know for sure why the people who were here first tied you up." The Moon Knight said, "for all we know they had a very good reason for tying you up in that chair. For now I think it would be smarter to just leave him there."

"Agreed," Psylocke said.

Wolverine was saved from answering when they heard a roar and scream from outside. "Doesn't matter whether we want ta free him now or not folks we got people ta save." Wolverine ordered directing the others toward the large double doors. The other two nodded and raced after him as they all went through the door.

"Bugger," Giles said as he began working on untying himself fortunately whoever had tied him hadn't been that good with knots and the watcher was able to untie himself from the bonds using a few tricks that he had picked up when he was younger.

* * *

Wolverine growled as he exited the school the entire place smelled of death and decay he also thought he smelled some of the same scents as he did when he was in Limbo. Looking up he saw what appeared to be a group of demon and charged his claws sliced through them with ease as the demons hardly put up any fight at all. "Almost takes all of the fun out of it," Wolverine grumbled as he slid his claws in and out to get rid of the blood that coated his claws. Another group of demons dropped on top of him and the mutant grabbed them by the scruffs of their necks and tossed them off to the side. Psylocke and Moon Knight were there when they came down and with deadly precision Moon Knight sliced their throats open with a combat knife while Psylocke punched them in the throat or broke their necks with a quick twist.

Wolverine nodded at the pair in approval. "Moon Knight, I want ya to take yer gun and act as air support from the rooftops. Psylocke and I will take up point and try ta keep people all right from down here on street level."

"Understood," Moon Knight said as he cocked his gun before jumping between a house and a fence till he was on a roof.

"Let's hunt," Wolverine said with a feral grin that would have made a number of the X-Men worried about just what it was that he planned on doing tonight. He didn't need to worry about them though cause they weren't here he was. It was time to do what he did best.

* * *

Willow Rosenberg sighed as she watched the group of trick r treaters came gathered around an old woman's house. She wondered how long the woman had lived here to be so carefree with opening her door to what looked like demons. The redhead shook her head she was starting to think like Buffy, Angel, and Giles so not what she needed to be doing. She turned back to the group when she heard a voice in her head. _**"Janus, evoco vestram animam. Exaudi meam causam. Carpe noctem pro consilio vestro. Veni, appare et nobis monstra quod est infinita potestas. Persona in corpus et sanguinem commutanda est. Vestra sancta praesentia concrescet viscera. Janus! Sume noctem!"**_ The red head stumbled for a moment vaguely aware that the old lady was being attacked. Darkness came next.

Natasha Romanoffblinked for a moment and noticed that she was dressed in her working clothes. Which considering she wasn't sure how she got here could be a good or bad thing. Someone had obviously wiped some of her memories. The last thing she remembered was that she had been fighting some rogue elements of the Hand at the ballet that had tracked her down for some reason or other. She was now in a small town with all of her gear. She saw a pair of monsters fighting it out on the ground with an old woman watching them fearfully. Her wonder at where she was and why would have to wait the woman decided. Without hesitating the woman shot the pair with a blast from one of her Widow's Bites. The energy bolt knocked the pair back giving her the time that she needed to push the old woman inside the house, and to kick at the demon on top. She smiled as she heard a squishy cracking sound. 'It was fun to do this sometimes,' she thought as she then dropped to her knees and shattered the windpipe of the second creature. Not even Captain America could completely blame her for what she had done besides the other Avengers weren't here right now anyways.

Natasha turned as she heard the report of a rifle and followed after it and sighed as she saw the familiar figure in all black with the death symbol on his shirt taking careful aim as he blasted into each of the various creatures that were running around the street chasing after what looked like parents of children. She watched as one came up behind the vigilante she fired at it and the blast caught the monster that had been hovering over his shoulders a solid shock giving her the chance to leap into the air and land on the shoulders before giving it a quick jerk breaking the creatures neck.

"Widow."

"Punisher." The two greeted each other Natasha slid a combat knife out of Castle's belt and leaped back into the fight.

Punisher chuckled a bit as he watched the woman go. He was glad that it was her here instead of some of the bleeding hearts that were under the mistaken belief that all beings deserved a chance. He really didn't feel like getting into a moral debate with the web slinger or someone like him right now. He turned away from where the Black Widow was slitting the throat of another monster and picked another target.

The pair turned as they saw two creatures get tossed through the window of one house, across the street, and through the door of another house. Looking up the pair saw Spiderwoman stride out of the wreckage of the first house her hands glowing with emerald energy as she glared at the large creatures that were climbing out of the other house. Spiderwoman leapt at them and ripped the throat out of the leader but was knocked down by the other one. The creature towered over her and roared and the stumbled as a bullet tore through each of its eyes and a knife embedded itself in its throat.

Spiderwoman nodded her thanks at the other two heroes and jumped back to her feet and went searching for any other monsters that were in the area. Jessica Drew wasn't sure how she had come to be here, one moment she had been swinging through her town of San Francisco and the next minute she was here fighting and killing monsters of some unknown type. She didn't know if they were supposed to be alien's dimensional travelers or demons of some kind. She hadn't found any gloating leaders to get the information from yet.

"Don't suppose that the two of you know what's going on by any chance?" The scarlet clad hero questioned curiously, as she broke the arm of a monster with claws and used its own claws to gut it.

"Not really," Punisher rasped as he drew a spare dagger and embedded it into the arm of a creature that had picked him up. The creature dropped him and roared in pain while Punisher picked his rifle up and gut shot the creature.

"Great, so all we can do for the time being is kill them before they kill us is that about it?" Spiderwoman question as she drove her elbow into the neck of another creature.

"Seems like it." Black Widow grunted as picked up an ax and threw it at another monster.

"Joy," the arachnid hero grumbled before jumping back into the fight focusing on the stronger looking creatures.

* * *

Giles grunted as he finally freed himself and managed to get out the door and saw all the damage that was rampaging through Sunnydale. He couldn't believe it he hadn't seen this much trouble through magic in years. Not even the Master had caused all that much damage and yet on Halloween, on a night when nothing was supposed to happen there was all of this. Someone was deliberately trying to cause troubles it seemed which meant it was two type of people. One was someone playing at magic and had lost control of the spell or even worse this had all been deliberate and a Chaos magic user had done all of this. He wasn't sure which of those he would actually prefer. Sighing the Watcher was tempted to perform a spell that he hadn't performed in years. With it he could track where the energy of the spell was being focused, but he would prefer to try other methods before trying that. It shouldn't be too hard to find someone that was unaffected enough by the spell to help him out either. The Watcher chose a direction and headed that way hoping he could get to the bottom of this problem.

* * *

Wolverine scowled at the girl in the cat costume that he had saved. The girl seemed to think fairly highly of herself unfortunately. In a way it was like dealing with Frost when she was on one of her power trips, or some of the villains he had fought who thought that they were the most important things in creation. Who would have thought that there was someone without superpowers as self centered as Magneto. It was kind of scary he was so glad that this girl didn't have any powers or she would be a real pain in the ass to deal with.

"Listen girl, I don't care about yer costume or your flamin deposit. Just tell me what the hell is going on here." Wolverine growled at the drama queen.

"Listen buster, I don't know who you are, but let me tell you something." The girl snapped, her eyes lighting up with rage as her finger began poking him in the chest. "No one talks to Cordellia Chase like that do you understand? "

The last part was dripping with scorn and superiority that Wolverine had to catch himself from breaking her hand. "Psylocke," he commanded, the purple haired ninja nodded and plunged her psychic knife into the head of the drama queen that they had saved.

The girl squeaked for a moment before falling boneless to the ground she would wake up later with a bad headache but this way she would at least still be alive and more importantly quiet and out of his way.

"She knows nothing about any of this, though she did think about someone that she thought of as a hero and loser at the same time. A girl that was called Buffy of all things." The ninja reported to her friend.

"Anything else?"

"Yes, we appear to be on a mystical convergence called a hellmouth, something that happens to match what the other set of memories that I sense within me."

"And what exactly is a hellmouth?" Moon Knight questioned the mutant ninja.

"A portal, or doorway between this world and a type of hell dimension possibly even Limbo."

"Great," Wolverine grumbled, "more good news. Anything else?"

"Yes, she knew the dog before he transformed he bought his outfit at a place known as Ethan's."

"We'll get there eventually, but we have to make sure the streets are safe."

"Anything else?"

"Nope, as much as I would like to help these folks there's no way we can save them all and stop the spell besides how many of em have we already killed? No we'll just have to hope that they stay out of our way."

"Understood."

They were stopped though as a new figure entered into sight. "You say that you know what is going on?"

The group of heroes turned and saw that the man that they had left tied to a chair was standing before them. "Yes, there's supposed to be a shop where all of these costumes came from." Psylocke said before Wolverine could say anything. "Perhaps you could go and check this out while we continue to patrol the streets and save whom we can."

"I Agree that is probably the best thing to do since I doubt you would really know just what it is that you are looking for with magical objects."

"Sounds like a plan," Moon Knight said turning away from the man so that they could get back to what they were doing before.

* * *

Spiderwoman, Black Widow, and Punisher had moved to the warehouse district they had picked up what seemed to be some kind of vampire who was working with them. He seemed to know them, but kept using names that were not theirs making them wonder what was going on. He looked torn as he watched them kill their enemies while he didn't seem to think that it was completely wrong he did seem to have some sort of reservations about them doing it.

Punisher was currently in the lead when they heard a screaming sound, they rushed down the alleyway. Punisher's eyes narrowed as he saw what looked like a pirate standing over what appeared to be a noble woman, he thought it was hard to tell when you considered the fact that all the girl was currently wearing was a slip and a shredded dress was lying tossed on the ground or being used to tie the girl's arms together. Punisher moved forward and pulled the pirate up by the scruff of his neck and then swung him into the wall. The pirate glared at the vigilante and drew his sword and charged at him. Punisher didn't even blink as got into a defensive crouch. The pirate laughed and lunged. Punisher moved with a speed that was hard for a normal person to follow, he caught the wrist holding the blade and twisted the arm. The two women watching, didn't react as they heard the bone snap. Grabbing him by the back of his head Punisher swung his head down and brought his knee up smashing the man's face against his knee.

"Not sure why but I really enjoyed that one," Punisher said as he looked down at beaten and broken figure on the ground. Not taking a chance he brought his foot down on the man's knee snapping the bone. The women shrugged and began checking on the woman in what used to be noble clothing. "Well?"

Black Widow shrugged emotionlessly. "The girl's been raped repeatedly the way I see it she would have spent the entire night in this alley until he grew tired of her or he passed out.

"I see," Punisher growled tempted to finish the piece of filth off when they looked up and saw a crowd heading their way.

"You lot sure do leave an easy trail to follow," a peroxide blonde that looked like an 80's rocker complimented from the head of the crowd which contained various monsters like they had been fighting ever since they got here. "Got to say I love a trail full of blood, makes me remember some of the old days with the poofter it does. The figure inhaled deeply as if it was catching some unknown scent. "Remember the Boxer Rebellion mate?" The blonde asked with a smirk. Caught me a Slayer there as I recall."

"Spike," Angel growled angrily as he glared at the blonde.

"I take it the two of you have history?" Black Widow questioned the dark haired vampire as she eyed the crowd of monsters that was eyeing them hungrily.

"You could say that, Angel said, "he's my responsibility too though."

"In other words you need to be the one to deal with him."

"Yeah," the vampire agreed.

"Fine, can you do it?"

"I don't think he'll be a problem," the vampire returned as he jerked a plank off a crate.

"Good, we'll handle the rest," Spiderwoman assured the dark haired vampire.

"You sure about that? There are an awful lot of them out there." Black Widow pointed out as she began assessing the various threats. "We also have her to deal with," she said nodding toward the woman who was finally starting to stir. "If this place was defendable then I'd be all for it."

"Fine, then let's take the fight inside," Punisher said as he opened fire with his rifle peppering the monsters and demons with bullets. Spiderwoman slung the girl over her shoulders while Black Widow and Angel pushed a door open and slipped into the warehouse with Punisher following after them. Once the soldier was inside the door was shut and lcoked.

"All right everybody better find places to deal with them." Angel suggested, "Because that won't keep any of them out for long." The others nodded, the two girls leaping into the air while Punisher ran toward the back where he could have the best field of fire before the creatures got to him.

"Who's got the girl?" Angel called out, as he found a shadow of his own to disappear into.

"I stored her in the office," Spiderwoman's voice called out.

Angel nodded in the direction of the figure before he checked his weapons he had his staff and two boot daggers. Xander seemed to have a small arsenal with him though after this fight they would probably have to get some more ammo, Willow had some odd type of wrist mounted taser, and Buffy had that poison and her powers seemed even stronger than they had before. Combined they just might live long enough to stop all of this or figure out what was going on.

The doors rattled a couple of times before breaking, two large creatures stood framed in the door before they were quickly shot down. Angel sighed as he watched would be hunters join them in the darkness soon there would be screams.

* * *

Giles found the store and shook his head as he calmly picked the lock on the costume shop. The name on the store sent a small chill down his spine as he considered the implications that this place could mean. He looked around the front and noticed that the place was empty and that only a handful of various costume types were decorating the racks. Without thought he moved forward into the back of the shop and paused as he saw a rather familiar looking statue with glowing green eyes. "Janus," Giles whispered glad that he was alone as he recalled everything that he knew about the bust and what it meant. "Two sides, division of self," he muttered to himself.

"Chunky and creamy," an amused voice said as Ethan stepped out of the shadows.

"Ethan."

"Hullo Ripper," the Mage greeted with a smirk.

"I might have known it was you, I even suspected it when I heard what was going on. This entire Halloween stunt stinks of Ethan Rayne." Giles accused the other man.

"Yes it does doesn't it?" Ethan said now seeming less amused at the casual way Giles talked about him and what he had done. "Don't wish to blow my own trumpet, but it's genius. The very embodiment of 'be careful what you wish for'."

"It's sick, brutal, and it harms the innocent." Giles fired back at the other man.

Ethan sneered at the man. "Oh, and we all know that you are the champion of innocents and all things pure and good, Rupert. It's quite a little act you've got going here, old man."

"It's no act. It's who I am." Giles returned.

Ethan turned and faced the man in amusement. "Who you are? The Watcher, sniveling, tweed-clad guardian of the Slayer and her kin? I think not. I know who you are, Rupert, and I know what you're capable of. But they don't, do they? They have no idea where you come from. So tell me Rupert old mate. Do you really think that your little protégés will manage to keep their hands as silky white of human blood as you managed to keep them?" Ethan goaded his old friend. "After all, if anyone knows what would happen when you mix chaos magic and the death of innocents you would. Mind you I was never as powerful as you were in it all but you got to admit I have a certain amount of style."

"Why would they feel the need to kill?" Giles questioned doing his best to contain a growl. He had to find the way to end this blasted spell quickly before someone was hurt. He would deal with Ethan and his damned mind games later.

"Why didn't you know Ripper? They and another group put together some fairly deadly costumes. In fact as I recall while they were guys that fought on the side of the angels they were a far cry from being white hats that would understand why they shouldn't kill unless someone warned them not to that is. The results of all that should be pretty interesting if you know what I mean since quiet a number of the kids chose the monster mask. Personally I wanted to make the Slayer a damsel in distress this way might make it more interesting though. I'll have to come up with a way to thank that boy of hers sometime."

"The blood of an innocent." Giles said in disbelief ignoring the last part. "The consequences could be anything Ethan."

"That is why they call it chaos Ripper old boy. You remember all of the fun we used to have don't you? Think of it this way now you'll have more in common with those children." Ethan mocked at him. You can even compare who's meaner."

"Break the spell, Ethan. Then leave this place and never come back."

"Why should I? What's in the bargain for me?" Ethan challenged the man with a smirk.

"You get to live." Giles said coolly.

Ethan actually smiled at that response twenty years ago he might have been worried but not anymore. The man before him didn't have what Ripper had. "Oh, Rupert, you're scaring me." He mocked at the larger man. Giles punched him in the gut with a left, making him double over, and followed that up with a right to the face. 'Bugger,' the Mage thought, 'he had obviously misjudged the man.'

* * *

Spike cursed inwardly, he was busy fighting his grandsire of all people while the others were being picked off by the Slayer and her groupies. The only difference was that tonight her groupies actually had some teeth in them. The vampire ducked a punch watching a possessed monster that had been about to get a drop on the soul boy fall to the ground with a bullet in its head. As much as the vampire hated to admit it the easy hunt that Dru had told him had been cancelled just as she had foretold. It looked like it was time for him to make a strategic retreat. He snatched the arm of another monster and twirled so that the creature was now standing in front of Angel while he was a few steps away now. The vampire ran out the door already planning on suitable revenge on the entire lot of them for this embarrassment he had suffered.

Had the vampire stayed he would have seen the ceiling fall down and three new figures join the side of the angels. "Take em down!" Wolverine ordered, as he lunged at a creature around seven feet tall slashing the monster in the legs and then impaling it in the shoulders.

Moon Knight and Psylocke nodded and joined their leader in the destruction that he was raining down all around them. Moon Knight found himself beside his sometimes ally Punisher and the two each fired a stream of bullets at their enemies.

"So who started the party without us," Wolverine questioned, "and how come we didn't get an invitation?"

"You're joking right?" Spiderwoman questioned as she impaled two creatures on a pair of hooks. "This entire town is a party town as far as you're concerned, and you felt like you needed an invite for certain parts of it?"

"Good point," Wolverine conceded as he gutted another opponent.

The bloodbath continued and no matter how many of them they seemed to kill more always seem to come and replace the ranks of those that had already fallen. Most of the monsters had fallen though in the first few waves leaving only real demons and vampires for the group to fight the cries of pain and the scent of blood had driven many towards the warehouse district.

* * *

Giles kicks Ethan hoping that this would loosen the man's tongue. "Now, tell me how to stop the spell." Giles said still as coolly as can be as the other man was now bleeding.

"Janus. Break its statue." Ethan moaned out. Giles doesn't hesitate as he grabbed the statue and lifted it over his head to smashes it causing a blast of energy to erupt.

* * *

The scoobies and their allies collapse leaving Angel as the only one standing. He glares at the handful of vampires still standing who beat a quick retreat now that they have a moment to escape. He kneels down beside the Slayer and looks at her with interest. "Buffy?" He questions the scarlet clad figure.

"Yeah it's me," Buffy said she grimaced as he helped her up. The Slayer looked at all of the dead demons and Halloween wearing people and turned green the only reason she wasn't throwing up right now was because she had walked into rooms like this before. The two helped the other members of the group sit up and stood back as they emptied their stomachs. Buffy also ended up emptying hers as the realization that all of this was death was partly her fault.

The three unknowns mumble something and then before any of them can do anything the three unknowns disappear with a loud crack causing Buffy and Angel to grimace at the noise that they were making. "How in the heck did they do that?" Xander questioned in disbelief.

"They must have been wizards," Angel said looking around as if half expecting for the trio to reappear elsewhere.

"Oh that makes sense, well come on I want to go home. We all have about a couple gallons of blood we need to get off of us." Willow said, "also I wouldn't say no to water, lots of water cause I'd rather not be tasting everything I ate today."

"Right, so ah we regroup tomorrow and figure out just what happened then?" Buffy asked the others who all nodded in agreement. The group each headed for the door unaware of the arcane energies that they had gathered that night.

* * *

Harry, Hermione and Ron all shivered as they reappeared by the tent that they had pitched. The memory of what they had done that night still with them. "Bloody Hell!!" Ron shouted into the night.

Hermione merely shivered and didn't bother to correct her friends speech this one time. "It wasn't really us," she whispered in assurance to herself.

Harry merely looked on into the night feeling guilty that he had somewhat enjoyed the power strength and most importantly the confidence that Wolverine had. If he had that level of confidence all the time he would be unbeatable. The boy thought to himself as he removed his own mask. Dumbledore, Sirus, Moody, and Cedric would all be alive today if he had the strength and confidence of Wolverine. Harry shivered as he thought these thoughts as he looked at the mask that he had worn that night. The mask seemed to be talking to him, though he couldn't hear it.

That night as they all went to bed each of the teens found themselves looking at the pile of clothes laying on the floors of their rooms. None of them could quiet bring themselves to hide the clothes, and the memories of what they had done that night weighed on their minds. As they drifted away to sleep they never noticed the green glow of the piles of clothes as they glowed brighter and brighter throughout the night. As the sun climbed into the sky signaling the change of a new day the energy rose up and ghostly figures rose of the costumes. Each of the green spirit like figures looked at their hosts for a moment before looking toward the sun. Each of the heroes had gained the excess memories of their former hosts last night and they couldn't leave them to return to the way that they had. Each of them took one final look at the people that the kids were before plunging their hands into the chests of the children feeling themselves mingle with the body and souls of the young fighters. The energy was absorbed into the bodies without anyone being the wiser.

* * *

All right that's all I got right now love it hate tell me.


	2. Chapter 2

**Another chapter another disclaimer and another lack of dollars**

* * *

Rupert Giles sipped on his tea and contemplated what he would face this morning. He was waiting for the three defenders of the hellmouth to show themselves and wondered what kind of report that the three of them would give him. He wondered just who or what would come to him today. Would he be meeting with his slayer and her group of misfit friends, whatever costumed characters that they had dressed as, or he would they be some sort of amalgamation of the two? In his mind he could see so many possibilities that could come from Ethan's spell. He was almost afraid to find out which of the changes might have happened as he had no doubt that if the group had killed so much as one human costumed or otherwise then there would be hell to pay. He hadn't called the Council just yet as he was going to wait and see just what it was that had happened to them before he decided on his next move.

The librarian was pulled out of his musings as three figures slipped into the room just as silently as Angel did. The Watcher would never have noticed them if he hadn't been watching the big double doors. The Watcher frowned as he looked the group over. Willow and Buffy appeared to have both gone through a growth spurt they also appeared to have gone up a couple of bra sizes two the watcher noted. Willow's dress style had changed from the innocent girl next door who wore jumpers to a person confident in their appearances, her waist length hair had also been cut since yesterday to just barely coming to her neck. Buffy had changed her hair style as well the Watcher noted as her formerly bleach blonde locks were now dyed black. Xander appeared to have taken the most change though even if they appeared to be mostly cosmetic. Gone were the painfully bright shirts, instead he now wore all dark colors and a gray trench coat. His hair had been cut as well so that it was no longer a shaggy mess that he had grown accustomed to. The only other difference besides hair that the group had in common was their eyes. Giles felt his heart break as he looked into their eyes each of their eyes. There was a hardness that hadn't been there not even when Buffy was channeling the Slayer had her eyes been this hard.

"What the hell happened out there last night Giles?" Buffy demanded in a voice as cold as her eyes.

Giles shoulders sagged as he looked at the Slayer that was not the girl that he had been teaching for the past year and a half. The Buffy he knew would have pleaded for answers or screeched out demands like a spoiled little princess. She did not however make demands like this. "Yes, well um, before I do that I need to make sure that it's you in charge in your head Buffy."

"And how do you intend to do that?" Xander coolly questioned eyeing the Watcher suspiciously.

"Yes um, I was figuring I would merely talk with you and see what your personality is." The Watcher explained to Xander or whomever it was that he was talking to. "However, to best understand just what it is that has happened to you I will require for you to tell me just whom it is that you dressed as."

"Fair enough," Willow said from where she was leaning against the banister of the steps. "I went as the Black Widow."

Giles looked at her in confusion not recognizing the name that had been given to him. The only black widow he knew of was the spider and he somehow doubted that was what she was talking about. "Who?"

"We'll explain later," Xander said cutting the watcher off briskly.

"Very well," the miffed Watcher said, "how about yourself Buffy?"

"Spiderwoman," Buffy answered him.

"Really? I was unaware that you would want to dress as a superhero, I thought you got enough of that sort of thing at night."'

"Blame Xander, he's the one that convinced me into wearing that costume the other day."

"Hey you didn't seem to mind when you were posing for us, and would you rather have been the helpless girl that Harmony was?" Buffy shuddered at that before giving her friend a bone crushing hug which Xander returned.

"Excuse me Harmony?" Giles questioned, "was she changed by a costume as well?"

"Yeah sorta, she wore a noblewoman's dress," Willow explained.

"Oh well I doubt that she was able to get into very much trouble then, as I doubt a noblewoman would be able to much damage all things considered."

"Yeah she wasn't much trouble, too bad for her Larry the pirate found her ladyship last night. When we found them last night. Harmony was unconscious from the pounding that she had taken. I beat the crap out the pirate broke his arms and legs without a second thought I would have killed him to if Spike and his groupies hadn't interrupted us and we had to find a place to fight." Xander informed the Watcher angrily.

Giles paled at the thought of what might have happened to Buffy had she been wearing that dress. He had to focus on the matter at hand though he would worry about the girl later. "And who did you go as Xander?"

Xander let out that cool smirk, "I went as Frank Castle, you might know him better as the Punisher though."

"You went as who!" Giles almost yelled at the boy before him. "You mean to tell me you went as someone who kills without hesitation? What were you thinking, is that the kind of person that you want to be Xander?"

"Hey ease up Giles, we all went as spies or vigilantes with less than shining histories." Buffy defended her friend.

"What do you mean?" Giles questioned the Slayer.

Buffy rolled her eyes at the watcher before she began explaining to him."I mean that Willow went as a Russian superspy, and I went as a super powered secret agent slash assassin for a secret group of mad scientist and people that wanted to rule the world." Giles listened with growing horror at the blunt and honest way that the girl explained things. "We have more power now than ever Giles. Patrolling should be fun, although we are going to have to convince Angel to work with all of us."

"I don't know Buffy he's a killer," Xander argued, "shouldn't we kill him for what he's done?"

"Who had no control Castle," Buffy argued, "in a way he was possessed or under the control of another. I'm not saying you have to be best friends what I want you to do though is to work with him." The pair locked glares on each other before Xander stiffly nodded though he obviously still disliked it. Personally Giles was glad to see that Xander's animosity toward Angel was still there it allowed him to see the real person the young man was. Buffy gave her friend a knowing smile, "besides this way you can determine just how much of a threat to us he is without any of us having to get hurt. Try not to be too trigger happy with your though."

Xander nodded he didn't like this one bit but he knew that Buffy was trying to work out a compromise for all of them and this way seemed to be the best. The fact that she was leaving him to judge the vampire rather than allowing herself to be swayed by her personnel wants and desires of the vampire. "Sounds fair, I'll do my best to not judge him just for the sake of judging." He promised his friend.

"Thanks," Buffy said flashing her friend a smile.

"Ah Buffy, I need to know a few things about your new abilities. Also the personality test needs to be done."

"Oh yeah I thought you might want something like that so I brought you these." Xander said, his eyes alight in amusement as he handed Giles something.

"You can't be serious," Giles said as he looked at the small stack of comic books that was being offered to him.

"Well, how else did you think that you were going to learn about the skills and abilities that we now have Giles?" Xander mocked the Watcher. "You can't exactly look into a three thousand year old 3rd edition book that can help you with this. You have to go with something a bit more modern."

"Well isn't there a decent book about all of these foolish things?"

"Not unless you want to look on the internet," Xander said with a smirk taking the comics they all knew that Giles wouldn't dare go for that option unless he had no choice at all though.

"Oh very well give me those infernal things," Giles said snatching the comics from Xander.

"Hey be careful with those," Xander exclaimed, "do you have any idea what some of those are worth? Those are rare comics, altogether that pile is worth around $1200."

"$1200!" Giles spluttered as he looked at the pile of books that weighed less than one pound." How in the world could someone be bothered to actually pay that much money for these things?"

"It's called taste Giles." Xander said with a horrible fake British accent that was obviously supposed to be a mimic of Giles.

The Watcher thought that the boy was butchering good speech even more than he usually did though as he eyed the comic books with disgust. "Very well if this is the only way," Buffy smiled as she held her hand out to her friends who each placed a small handful of bills to the girl. "Do I even want to know?"

"Just a friendly bet on how long t would take you to give in." The Slayer explained with a smirk. "It's good being your Slayer sometimes oh Watcher of mine."

Giles shook his head a this. "I'm glad I can help you make some money Buffy. I don't suppose that you plan on putting your winnings towards slaying now do you?"

Buffy smirked at this. "Sorry Giles so not happening."

The Watcher shrugged unsurprised by her response. "It was worth a try, now then I believe you lot have classes after that is done I want all of you to come here and we shall see just what it is that you are capable of now that you seem to have all of the abilities of some made up characters at least you believe yourselves to that is." Giles couldn't help but hope that the power would fade and they would be back on the correct path once again.

"You know this could mean that there are realities that they do exist though Giles just because we don't have people like them in our reality doesn't mean that they don't exist."

"A very good point Willow, I will consider that but for now the whole lot of you need to get going and get to your classes with your new maturity I hope I no longer need to tell you the importance of keeping a low profile."

"We'll try Giles," Willow said before the other two could make some sort of sarcastic comment to the Watcher about how they didn't exactly fit in anywhere or that when it came to maturity as a teenager Giles really had very little to talk about considering that it was Giles childhood friend that had performed the spell that changed them all. There was no telling what else they had thought as fun when they were younger if last night was what Ethan did as a way to remember the good old days or to simply amuse himself. Giles nodded to the group as they slipped out just as quietly as they had entered. The Watcher frowned each movement was being unconsciously made but it was obvious to anyone that knew the signs that the group was possibly one of the more if not the most dangerous group of people on the planet right now. Sighing he looked at the comic books with distaste before heading to his office it appeared that he had research to do never before had he been so uneager to investigate the source of something he mused to himself.

* * *

Harry and Ron woke to find their friend Hermione paging through a book or at least they presumed it was their friend. Their friend was now a mixture of her costume from the night before and her natural self. "Hell, what happened?" Ron asked as he looked at his friends. Ron's eyes widened as his once heavy British accent didn't come out but a cross between an American and Arabic accent popped out instead.

"That's what I'm trying to figure out," Hermione said distractedly. "Off-hand though, I would say that whatever spell that was used on us changed us in more permanent ways than we originally thought. We all seem to have gained some of the physical attributes of the characters that we dressed as well." She continued in a slightly lost voice. "Ron you may have notice that you are now much taller and fit than you were last night. Harry while your hair has always been a bit uncontrollable you've never had sideburns."

Harry unconsciously raised his hand to the side of his face and felt the hair on the side of his face that had grown overnight. "Any other changes?" Harry questioned doing his best ignore the fact that his accent sounded more like an American one with the deepness of Kingsly and the low growl that Hagrid had. Out of the corner if his eyes he noticed that Ron was flexing his muscles experimentally.

"Yes," Hermione said as she finally stood up and the boys had to work on keeping the eyes from wandering as they saw that overnight their friend had filled out in all of the right places putting all of the various other girls that they had known to shame. Yet as the pair focused on her face they saw other changes to their friend while her face was still in the same general shape there was a difference to it more chiseled and imperious her once chocolate brown orbs were now a lavender, her hair had changed from bushy and brown to lavender with curls in it then there was her skin tone which had changed to a dark Asian tone.

"Um…" Ron said unsure what to say as he eyed the goddess that his friend had turned into.

"Not a word Ron, not a word." The witch growled, not sure she could take any of her friends less than diplomatic responses. Another side affect seems to be that I am now half Japanese. This shouldn't be possible though, I've never heard of magic changing someone's ancestry; if it were possible Voldemort would have used parts of someone besides his father to resurrect himself. We have to find out just what happened to us."

"We also need to figure out if any of the changes to us include abilities." Harry said reminded her, "You do remember everything we did last night right?" He questioned her nervously.

"You mean you haven't realized it yet Harry, or would you prefer the name Logan? Take a deep breath and tell us what you smell."

Harry nodded and inhaled smelling scents that he knew and could identify he was in fact nearly overwhelmed at the intensity of the scents that he was bombarded with it was as if his face was right next to everything he was smelling. "What hell is that?" He growled out.

"That was your powers going through all of the various scents in the room Harry." Hermione explained to her friend. "We appear to have gained all of the abilities of our costumed selves." She explained nodding to the three costumes that she had set up on a trio of mannequins. "Try and pop your claws Harry."

Harry swallowed nervously and held his hand up he clenched his hand into a fist nothing happened and he stared at it for a moment and felt his muscles twitch and with a loud scrapping snikt sound three claws appeared coming out of his hands. "What the flaming heck is going on Mione?" He growled as he stared at the claws.

"I'm not completely sure Harry, I'm researching it still but I don't know everything yet but it appears that we have all of the memories and abilities of these costumes that we wore the other night I went to a nearby pay phone and attempted to call the costume place however no one appears to be answering which could mean a number of things."

"Well the last thing that I remember is that we left that fight in the warehouse after we finished emptying our stomachs." Ron grimaced, "Then we came here and went to bed."

"So any ideas how this happened Mione, was it accidental magic, something we did maybe?" Harry asked as he tried to wrap his mind around what he was now capable of doing. These claws flashing through the bodies of various beings last night coming back to him.

"I don't know yet Harry there is still so much for me to examine before I can tell you what has happened." The witch said in annoyance.

"Yeah well while you do that I think I'm going to see if I can't find a way to make some quick money and then buy some guns I feel naked without any." Ron said.

"Yes I suppose so," Hermione said wincing as the pureblood pronounced the word correctly, "do try and stay out of trouble though."

"Hey, I have all of Marc Spector's memories," Ron said with a confident smirk that he rarely displayed anywhere except for chess. "I think I can figure this out, I'll get us some money and then get us some weapons after that we can figure out what were going to do next."

"Ron we have enough money right now," Harry interrupted. "I think it would be better if you found some bars where you can get information from. You work this side of town and I'll work downtown. Between the two of us we ought to be able to come up with something." Ron nodded in reluctant agreement. "You don't mind looking through all of the books while we do that do you?" Harry questioned the third member of the group.

Hermione shook her head at this. "I may have all of the powers abilities and memories of Betsy Braddock but I'm still me at the core though I wouldn't be all that surprised if over the next few days we find that there are other things that we aren't prepared for from this."

"So these new versions of us could just be something we'll have to get used to and wonder where we start and they begin?" Harry said trying to wrap his mind around what had happened.

Exactly or they could disappear in a few hours and just be some left over magic from the spell. If they are permanent though we'll have to be careful we don't know for sure that these powers and abilities won't try and overwrite our own personalities. Can you imagine if these personalities were to try and completely take our bodies over and only make us the memories? We all have to be extremely careful in what we do now." Hermione lectured at her friends.

"Alright just be careful." Harry replied to his friend as he tried to slip his jacket on. He grumbled a bit as he looked down noticing that the shoulders of the jacket that had fit his slight frame was not very good for dealing with his now muscular and broad shoulders and arms. Grumbling a bit the wizard cast an engorgio spell on the jacket before he could get it on. He then slipped out of the room.

Hermione rolled her eyes as she picked up the smug thought that Harry now had as many if not more muscles as Charlie. She really hoped that she would be able to get a hand on the powers and abilities before they drove her mad. The mind reading power in particular, she had been tempted to use a psychic knife on Ron when he had first looked at her. She growled to herself and opened one of her books on possessions seeing if she could find anything on their kind of possession that might help them out of the mess that they had currently found themselves in this time.

* * *

**Sunnydale High Library**

Giles looked up as he saw a flash of light looking up he saw that each of the teens had slipped into the library without him noticing and had snapped a picture of him surrounded by the various comic books that Xander had left him. Giles glared at the trio as they began placing the cameras into their hiding spots. The Watcher groaned as he realized the potential teasing material that the trio of friends now had at their disposal. The watcher contemplated demanding the cameras but didn't as he doubted that any of them would surrender the devices and the way he had been done meant that there was still the three of them with core personalities over that of the personalities of their costumes so he would let it slide for now.

"I take it that class is out then?" He questioned the group.

"Yeah Giles it is," Buffy agreed as they each dropped a folder down in front of the Watcher on his desk.

"And these are?" Giles questioned with interest as he eyed the folders with relief as he placed the comic books under the folders with relief.

"After action reports," Xander said carelessly yet with a certain authority that made you want to listen. "We figured if we did that it would save us all a bunch of time and aggravation of telling you everything if we were to write all the things down that we remembered from last night."

Giles stared in disbelief as he opened Xander and Buffy's folders and looked at them and saw clear and concise writing. "How is this possible?" He questioned them in disbelief. "I expect this sort of thing from Willow, but from the two of you it's unbelievable."

"We're not that bad," Buffy grumbled while giving the Watcher a glare.

"Yeah sure Buffster, I happen to take pride in having always been a slacker." Xander said while smirking at Giles. "Anyways, since all of our new personalities are from the military or military trained," he said nodding to the two girls, "we figured we could use those skills to get all the information that you were going to bug us about out of the way."

"That and they wouldn't let us sharpen any of our knives while we were in homeroom." Willow added with a grin.

"Knives?" The watcher asked tiredly wondering what the group had done this time he was used to Buffy performing stunts with her Slayer abilities without realizing it, but if the others also started doing it as well he would have a number of problems.

"Hey its not our fault that the teachers were completely unreasonable about the weapons we were carrying on us." Xander said, "Besides it did make O'Toole and his goon squad back off when they saw the way we could make our blades appear and disappear without the teachers even noticing."

"Yeah, it was amusing watching him try to do the same thing with that bowie knife of his." Willow said with a smirk.

"He deserved to be caught, the fact that his wannabe Rambo pig sticker cut him cause he was trying to copy us is in no way our fault." Buffy said which caused the three to chuckle at the memory of what the older boy had done to himself.

"Could you please contain your antics for a while?" Giles pleaded as he began scanning the reports which all seemed fairly accurate and agreed when they were put together. "I am actually more interested in the fact that there were three others that were fighting with you at the end."

"Yeah Wolverine, Psylocke, and Moon Knight were all there as well." Xander said in agreement.

"What were they dressed as?"

"Um… Wolverine has a yellow and gold costume with a half mask, Psylocke has purple hair and a purple swimsuit, while the Moon Knight wears an all white outfit with a full mask and cape."

"I see you wouldn't happen to have seen the group before they bought those costumes by any chance?"

"Um yeah, sure in fact it was cause of them that we chose the costumes that we did." Willow said, "Buffy and the girl kind of had a bit of a confrontation at the Halloween store."

"Really? Well I'll need you to tell me everything about them that you can think of it could be extremely helpful."

"Why," Buffy asked suspiciously, "what happened that you need to track them down?"

"The three of them broke into the library before the spell took effect." Giles explained to them. "The three of them appeared to be some kind of wand using magic users though I've never seen anyone using wands like that to cast magic. Most of the wands I know of are much longer and thicker than what they were using and are usually only used for certain types of spells. However I observed the three of them using multiple different types of spells with their wands and they seemed extremely familiar with the wands."

"So we got teenage magic users that broke in here that cast with magic wands. Do we know what they want?"

"Unfortunately we don't, they were interested in a Dark Lord of some sort and they were also extremely curious about an enchanted tattoo that I have."

"You have a magic tattoo?" Buffy said with a grin.

"Yes, unfortunately it does not give me any extra strength or skills though." Giles told the Slayer, "it was something that I acquired before I became a Watcher."

"Fine, do you have any ideas who they might be?" Xander questioned they could come back to the tattoo if it became important.

"Not really, however there is a rumor in the Watcher's Council that might explain it all."

"Really and what is that rumor?" Xander pressed.

"Well, about every twenty years according to my father and grandmother there is always rumors of a magical society that uses wands for magic focuses." The Watcher explained to them as he recalled what he had been told. "According to what is known, these wand users are extremely rare and powerful and can perform spells that most wiccans need to focus to perform with just a wave of these sticks of theirs. They were reportedly seen sometime during World War II and then about twenty years ago. However whenever a group of Watchers goes to investigate these rumors they either disappear or come back with no memory of their hunt and all of the research equipment that they had with them gone or sometimes a combination of the two. One of the more humiliating times was when an entire group reappeared in nothing but their underwear."

"Travers wouldn't happen to have been in that group by any chance would he?" Buffy asked with a vicious predatory smile on her face. She had only ever heard the man mentioned a few times, but he sounded like a desk jockey who was completely by the rules except for when it made his life easier another little petty tyrant. In other words she was expecting a cross between Snyder and Merrick.

Giles chuckled at this. "No, I wish it had been, it might have given him some humility. Instead he was the person that took over for that team's leader in magical research division before he made his way up into the higher echelons of the Watchers Council."

"Sounds like a great guy to be running the Council then." Willow said with a dry sarcasm.

Giles blinked at her tone which was quiet different than her usual kind tone even with people she didn't like. The Watcher adjusted his glasses as he gathered his thoughts before fixing each of them with a look. "The inner workings of the politics of the Watcher's Council are not up to discussion at the moment, but rather what level of skill and power that you three now possess we will worry about these wand wavers if they show up again sometime." The Watcher then fixed the dark haired young man with a look. "Xander, I want you to compile a report on the known skills and abilities of each of these others so that I have some idea on what to expect from them if they should show up here again."

Xander groaned as he realized that this was Giles punishment for making him read the comic books to learn about their new abilities. Next time remind me to hold out on the report until after I manage to get you the comic books." The teen grumbled as he realized he had three reports to write down now.

Giles smirked at the boy. "Now then we shall start training?

"Um, I hate to say it but I don't think there's enough room here to train." Willow pointed out to the man.

"I beg your pardon?" Giles said in surprise wondering what the redhead was talking about he and Buffy had trained here enough that he was certain that he would know whether or not they could train here.

"She's right Giles," Xander said with a smirk, "it's one thing when it's just you and the Buffster training, or her using you for a punching bag, but there's now three people training here there's no way that we'll all be able to train here like this. You may not be aware of it but it takes this entire area for just you to train Buffy and that's only for up close combat with knife and stake throwing. Now that we have all the knowledge of long distance weaponry we're going to need to find a place with a real shooting gallery and a place big enough to train us all in at once."

"And how do you plan on doing that?" Giles asked, "Finding the space to train is not exactly easy."

"Well there are all of those abandoned warehouses that the bad guys like to use." Buffy pointed out to her mentor. "They would give us the space that we need to work in and it would be easier on us that way. We can go through some basic sparring and weapon throwing here but do a majority of our work in someplace like that. Besides we should be allowed to use those warehouses just like them."

Giles nodded in reluctant agreement with her argument, he had reservations about training in some of the same areas as they were supposed to be patrolling but until someone else could come up with a better suggestion he realized that they didn't have a whole lot of choice. Who knows, with some work they might be able to set up some sort of base of operations though it would take time and money to set something like that up. Perhaps he could convince the Council that they could benefit from some sort of stronghold here on the hellmouth in which to wage their war from he would have to consider that. "Very well, I'll think on it now then back to training though. Willow, Xander let's see how well the two of you are now capable of fighting before we begin making plans for you to join the front lines." Giles knew they had some of the memories of their comic selves and were physically capable but this would show how they had and hadn't changed. Besides he doubted that there would be that much improvement despite the skills they had exhibited the other night.

The pair shrugged as if they had expected something like this. It was at this moment that Giles noticed that both of them had removed everything from their pockets already in anticipation of his request. Except for the cameras; those had handed over to Buffy for safe keeping Xander even had the nerve to smirk at him on that one. The two stepped toward the middle of the room and eyed each other up and down as they slowly began moving into crouched combat positions. Giles eyes narrowed as he eyed the paired comparing their combat stances. The stances they were using were both meant for speed, Xander's style depended largely on military style combat that relied more on his larger body weight being able to knock Willow over while Willow's form was a combination of various ninjutsu styles some of which he had tried to drill into Buffy but had yet to take into the Slayer's combat style. It was actually disturbing to see the pair as they circled changing styles as they moved to counter the moves of what the other might be using. They charged and Giles just stared as he watched the pair go at it. Xander had tried to bowl his friend over and pin her ending the match quickly. Willow had easily sidestepped the attack though and raised her leg high and spun cracking her foot against Xander's shoulder blade Xander rolled with the blow though and came up and lunged again. Willow smirked and back flipped away from her friend not even hesitating Xander leaped after her and his fist caught her in the small of the back causing Willow's perfect jump to be off. Willow performed a one handed handspring though and bounced back into the air and propelled herself at Xander feet first. Xander took the blow with a grunt and wrapped his hands around her ankles and spun her once before releasing her and sending her flying back the way that she had come from. Wilow tucked her legs and made herself into a ball as she sailed across the room before landing in a crouch with one leg extended.

"Alright enough stop!" Giles commanded the pair before they hit and broke something in here. The pair stopped and the Watcher was surprised that despite the blows that they had taken they were only sweating and breathing a little harder than before. "I knew that the spell changed your minds but I never imagined it changed your bodies to the extent that it has." Giles spluttered as he eyed the pair as they each casually caught a water bottle that Buffy had thrown at them. "I mean, I thought you would only be able to do some of the moves that you knew not have both the mental muscular memory to actually be able to perform at that level." The Watcher was in complete shock over the changes that had overcome his charges.

"In other words, you thought we were still us with just a few minor cosmetic enhancements and memories." Buffy said with a chuckle. "Sorry Watcher man, but I have all the memories and skills of working as a secret agent for S.H.E.I.L.D, H.Y.D.R.A, a bounty hunter, and working as a private investigator. We have these skills Giles and we have the ability to use them. I don't know what that all means for us personally and it may be a while before we figure it out but these powers and abilities could be used to do a lot of good."

"Or a lot of destruction," Giles countered his student; "remember that the sources of these powers and abilities are the result of human sacrifice and chaos magic. There is no telling what might happen if you use these powers to stop death and destruction you could even create more troubles by using them."

"We have to take the chance though Giles," Willow said with a hard resolve face, "we have just as much right to fight the things that go grr during the night. It may be Buffy's destiny and all but this is our hometown."

Giles sighed as he heard the girl talk to him, a part of him knew that she was right but he also knew the kind of price that chaos magic could cause. He had the mark of demon branded on him and would someday die because of it he didn't want them to find themselves with a similar problem. "Very well, I still have my reservations however if you can keep that level of skill then I see no reason that you may not continue in what it is that you are planning particularly since you would do it whether I gave you permission or not."

"Good, your learning," Xander said with a smirk as he began stuffing the various odds and ends into his pockets. He looked up at his friend.

"Hey Willow, have you figured out how to copy your costume yet? Cause you might grow out of it since your still a teen now and I would hate to see you outgrow that form fitting outfit."

Willow shook her head at this. "No, I'm still back engineering the Widow Bites I have they're based on taser technology though, so it shouldn't take much after that there's the gas bombs, widow line, and I need to work on upgrading my belt with some basic demon hunting equipment besides the normal spy gear that is added into it."

"Couldn't you put some holy water in your gas bombs?" Buffy questioned with interest. The way that those things spread out over large areas they'd let you hurt or at least distract vampires quite a bit."

"Yeah, and some vamps still like to pretend their real boys and girls," Xander said, "and since they need to breathe to talk the gases might affect or slow them down as well."

Willow nodded at her friends suggestions. "I'll start working on those, add on to the bombs and then start on the suit so I can copy it's design."

"Umm pardon me, but what is so special about this uniform?"

"Her uniform is made of a special type of suction cups that allow her to cling to walls and things a lot like I can do without the need for a special outfit." Buffy explained then leaped into the air and clung to the ceiling as she rested for a moment much to the amazement of Giles

"Show off," Willow grumbled to her up at her friend who smiled down at them.

"Oh come on you know you were going to do the same thing the moment you had your costume on." Buffy shot at her friend before dropping back to the ground, once there she shook her hands and legs and grimaced slightly. "Remind me to go through all of my basic moves for a while before I do that again though Slayer powers and Spiderwoman powers means that I'm a lot stronger than either side of me remembers and I'll need to relearn how to moderate my strength."

"Is that why you let me get your soda out of the machine today?" Xander questioned.

"Yeah, cause we all know that Snyder would have loved it if I had gone and done something like breaking a vending machine," Buffy admitted to her friends who nodded in agreement with her assessment of the tyrant principle that loved to blame them for everything that went wrong real and imagined.

"Speaking of costumes, ever think of changing your costumes colors? It doesn't exactly blend into the night very well." Xander pointed out to his friend.

"Don't I know it," the Slayer grumbled as she thought of the scarlet and canary yellow costume with splashes of white. "Course when you want the bad guys to focus on you it's a good thing and it's not like I can't take a few hits." The Slayer mused aloud as she considered the pros and cons of wearing the Spiderwoman costume. She had to admit that the other two had costumes better suited for the type of combat that they would be engaging in and would be able to slip through various places in the town with a lot less notice than her own outfit would allow her. Besides she did look good in black.

"Yes, well I suppose we should go outside and you lot can go through training there." Giles said amazed that the three of them could spend so much time discussing suitable patrolling clothes although he had to admit from what he had read of those comic books they were right Spiderwoman's uniform was hardly the best thing to wear during patrolling unless she was trying to make herself a target. The group nodded and gathered their gear before they headed outside to work on their training or in Buffy's case the amount of power that she used.

As they walked ahead of Giles the trio began a quick whispered conversation. "So we hit Willy's tonight and get some weapon contacts from him and then go on a shopping trip right?"

"Yeah with some of the money you girls have, and my road trip stake we should be able to pick up some basics that we need a few different guns, ammo, and knives. We'll leave the swords off the list for now though who knows maybe the stuff Giles has can be used to find what we need in that regard." The others nodded in agreement with this suggestion, though from the pouting look Buffy shot him she let him know she was sacrificing for the group.

* * *

Harry and Ron came back that night each of them nodded to each other as they slipped into the tent. Each boy carried a duffel bag on their shoulders holding unknown goodies that they could use for the war now that they had the skills and abilities to use them. The pair looked up at Hermione who was experimenting with her powers by summoning her psychic knife around her fist before making it fade away while she skimmed a text in front of her. She nodded to the pair as they let the tent flap close behind them.

"Find anything of interest?"

"Little bit here, and a little bit there," Harry said, "found a snitch that would make Dung look like a model citizen."

"So you met up with Willy then?" Ron questioned, "I heard about him, he's supposed to run this crappy little demon hangout."

"Yeah it wasn't much more than a place to sit and drink though." Harry informed them, "although the guy did lead me to a couple of weapon and book dealers that turned out okay."

"What did you find books on?" Ron questioned with interest.

"Soul magic, evidently there's quite a bit of knowledge on soul magic out there." Harry told his friend. "It may take time to go through it all though," he admitted, "some of these texts are in Egyptian hieroglyphs."

"That'll be a cinch to translate," Ron said as his eyes scanned one of the books. The other two shook their heads in disbelief as they watched their friend as his eyes intently roamed up and down the book translating the book in his mind.

"Ron reading something that intently that isn't sport related that'll take some getting used to." Harry commented to Hermione who nodded her head in agreement of the statement as they watched their friend read through the book. "Well?" Harry finally asked impatiently. "Does that thing say anything that'll help us"?

"Hmm? Oh sorry mate not that I noticed." Ron admitted slightly embarrassed. "This thing mainly talks about some of the basic history of Horcruxes and how they're made."

"Anything useful like on how to destroy them?" Hermione asked hopefully.

Ron shook his head. "Fraid not, this guy was only interested in the theory of living forever he wasn't interested in how to undo the things that he did ruddy shame if you think about that."

"Great, so another dead end." Harry grumbled as he began leafing through a book not even paying attention to the fact that it was written in another language as he casually read over the lines. "Did you find out anything at Ethan's?"

"Nah, the guy made a quick retreat it looks like someone had gotten at him before I did though, the back room was pretty messed up maybe that librarian stopped him."

"Speaking of the librarian, I think we need to talk about when we're going to try and go back to the library again." Hermione looked at her friends tiredly noticing how neither of them seemed overly happy at the prospect of returning to that particular place. "Face it you two, we're going to have to go back to that library and find out what we can about You-Know-Who that's the only place that I can think of that might have the information on horcruxes and You-Know-Who all of the other places are just desperate stabs in the dark."

"I don't know Mione, remember the last time we went in there we came out of there a little bit different than when we went inside." Harry drawled popping his claws reminding them of their changes that they had taken since Halloween.

"Well unless you can come up with a better idea then I don't think that we have a whole lot of choice." Hermione huffed at her friends crossly as she glared at the pair of boys in annoyance. "That place is the only place that we know of that has all the information that we need and we know that the librarian has some kind of connection to the mystical world if that stack of magic books and enchanted weapons were anything to go by."

Ron sighed before looking at his friend. "As much as I hate to admit it she's got a freaking point."

"You better bloody well believe I do." Hermione growled at her friends. "Now I figure we should try and slip in during the day instead of a night, it means that they won't be able to pull anything if they want to keep their cover if there are really dark wizards there."

"And if they are, we're just going to be giving them a lot of hostages to use against us." Harry grumbled.

Ron nodded at this. "What about going in just after school is out there should be enough confusion during that time for us to slip in without anyone being the wiser and with Psylocke's telepathy we can slip in without anyone noticing us."

Harry nodded in agreement though he still didn't look overly happy about what was happening. "Fine, let's do a weapons a wand check then, cause I doubt that we're gonna get the drop on him twice. If he's smart he's either got the place set against us or has already left town, we probably should have hit the place this morning.

"Right, and how would we have done that with my telepathy trying to take over my head and your senses on overload? Ron would have been the only one of us capable of doing anything other than being sick we would have been easy marks before we managed to get a hold of ourselves."

Harry grunted at his friend and glared. "Fine, get some rest tonight though cause we got us some work to do tomorrow hopefully this guy will have the answers we need and we can get back to England soon."

"Sooner the better." Ron said getting nods of agreement from the other two. They had left their homes as scared teens who knew basic combat but when they returned they would come back as real fighters that would give the people that they had been having nightmares about nightmares of their own.

* * *

Buffy stalked into Willy's her two friends covering her back as they walked in. Everyone in the bar froze as they saw the way that the Slayer and her friends were moving. There was something different about the way the group of demon hunters held themselves, as if they were a new breed of themselves. "Willy," The Slayer greeted the bartender with a smile.

"Slayer," Willy greeted nervously wondering what the Slayer wanted information on this time. There was no plan to end the world that he knew of so he wondered what the group could be after. As he was wondering this he became aware that the backup had taken up positions in the bar that allowed them to cover most of the place. Since they were both carrying old Chinese repeating crossbows it meant that they would be able to get off a couple of shots before they were swarmed. The other various patrons of the bar seemed to become aware of the change in the group as every demon or vampire began to make sure that their hands, claws and talons were visible on their tables or the bar. The group had never entered like this and the bartender didn't know what to expect. He wondered if this could get any worse when Angel appeared in the doorway and leaned against the doorway. The bartender swallowed as he realized that they now had the entire room boxed in.

"What's with the show Slayer?" The small man whined as he looked around wondering what was going to happen.

"Just a reminder of what could happen if you ever double cross me or my people." The Slayer said with a smile that sent shivers down the bartenders spine. "Now then, I need these things and I need to know where I can get the best quality tonight." The Slayer handed a list to the man.

Reluctantly the man took the list and nearly choked as he saw the pair of Benjamin's that were hidden inside. The Slayer it seemed was finally learning the way that the world worked money greased things so much easier than blood and broken bones. "Yeah, there's a guy I know of that deals in the kind of stuff that you're looking for Slayer." Willy said as he quickly wrote down an address. "Funny thing that you should ask about this sort of stuff today though."

"Really, why is that?" The Slayer questioned him with interest.

The bartender smiled and held his hand out, the Slayer rolled her eyes and slammed her fist into the bar causing him to flinch when she moved her hand a twenty was resting there. Better than nothing he thought as he made the bill disappear so fast that some might thought that the bartender might know some magic. "It seems that there is some out of town talent wanting to stock up on ammo, one of their people was here this afternoon short guy but had lots of muscles. Word is that there was someone else asking around other parts of town for a lot of the same stuff."

"So either a new player, or someone who wants to up the game." The Slayer said nodding her thanks to the bartender before walking away.

"Let's go," the blonde ordered her friends who nodded and followed their friend out Angel was the last to leave and followed after the group Willy sighed as he leaned against the bar there had definitely been something different about the group tonight and that didn't count the fact that they hadn't just come in here swinging and demanding answers like they usually did. No they had acted like people who understood the way of the world and how to work it. That was actually scary because the Slayer was easy to predict if something had happened to change her tactics to a more deadly sort then things could go good for the angels very quickly. There was also the kind of stuff that the slayer had wanted to make it worse. Rifles, shotguns, pistols, body armor, explosives, tasers, grenades, and enough ammo for those guns to wage a war. The Slayer had talked about someone upping the game it sounded as if she and her people knew just who it was and were prepared to follow their example. Sunnydale might become a hot spot if they started adding in all of that equipment to the fight. The bartender shook his head at this and went to pour himself a drink and see if anyone wanted to buy this tidbit of information or if they would wait and see what had happened.

The group of scoobies wondered the streets for a moment as they left Willy's. "So what do you think?" Xander questioned Buffy, "Think that someone realized what happened to us and is getting prepared?"

"Either that or someone new in town, and he did say he didn't recognize them," Angel said, "I think we should approach this carefully."

"Agreed," Buffy said, "did you hit that crypt with all of that money like you said?"

"Yeah," Angel said as he pulled a small sack out of his jacket and showed off the small pile of golden coins to the group. "This should be enough to cover whatever we have to buy, and there is more left over if we need it." The group nodded as they headed to buy the gear that they would need, their minds though were on the fact that there was someone else gearing up just like them which side was this group on, in the war for keeping the hellmouth safe.

* * *

The three magic users had watched the school the entire day watching as people walked in and out noting the positions of the various people and the schedule that they seemed to keep. Harry sighed as he looked at his uniform it had felt right to slip the outfit on for what they were getting ready to do. His eyes scanned his friends who had like him placed their own respective costumes on. The uniform felt both familiar and odd at the same time, he wondered if there would come a time that he would be completely comfortable with the way this costume felt. Shrugging his concerns away for the time being Harry reached into a pocket and pulled out one of the nastier habits he had picked up from his possession. He popped a claw and cut the end of the cigar he had lifted off of a couple of demons he had fought at Willy's when they had tried to rough him up. After his display of beating the crap out of them the bartender had answered every question he had wanted the best part though was that Harry had paid the man for the information with the wallets of his opponents.

"Wolverine are you ready, the last bell just rang." Psylocke's voice echoed through his head.

"Ready and able." Wolverine said as he pushed the cigar against the wall. The three each dropped to the ground and slipped in amongst the crowd of students rushing out of the building. Thanks to Psylocke no one noticed the fact that three people were not any different than others as they slipped through the crowd.

The three found the library doors once again and looked them over. "He in there?" Moon Knight questioned his friends.

Psylocke and Wolverine nodded as they used their various senses to find the man. "he is but there are at least three others in there as well," Psylocke assured Moon Knight before she frowned as she concentrated. "I can't get a very good reading on them though it's like they have some kind of psychic shielding that's stopping me from getting a decent reading."

Moon Knight looked at his friend at this. Did they have anything like that the other night when you first got your powers?

Psylocke shook her head. No he didn't have any mental defences that I can recall of course they could have been put up since that night to. we should try and be careful there's no telling what might happen in there.

Wolverine grumbled at this development. "I knew we should have hit the place yesterday." The other two nodded at their friend. "I got four scents in there, though one of them smells off almost like its dead or something kind of like a vampire but it has something extra to it. Some of those other scents smell familiar to though I can't place em its like I should know em but they're different somehow." He looked to his teammates hopefully "Ideas?"

"The fourth one might be a demon or something else magical." Moon Knight suggested which caused the other two to grumble if the room had those kind in the room it would make things a bit more difficult.

"And the other scents?"

"Something left over from Wolverine's memory?" Psylocke suggested, Wolverine nodded at this suggestion. "Try not to get distracted," the mutant ninja told her friend. They had to get the job done and right now that was on the other side of the room, they pushed the doors forward and came face to face with several guns.

"Come into my parlor the Spider said." A redhead that looked like the Black Widow said that was holding a pair of matching Smith and Wesson Sigma's. Along side of her was Spiderwoman and Punisher each of them holding a gun of some sort ready to fire if they should need to.

"Welcome back." Rupert Giles said from where he was working on something beside him was another dark haired man that was surrounded by several glowing stones.

_Shit_. The three wizards thought wondering how they were going to get out of this one.

* * *

Leave some reviews folks got to admit i was shocked by the number last time wonder if the reviews will come close to the same number?


	3. Chapter 3

* * *

Hmm, got some interesting comments on this tale; although I got to wonder about this one person that called Colossus one of the Marvel Universes Dark Heroes. He's a flipping white knight amigo and has little of the dark tendencies, the Ultimate version has a pair but not the 616 universe one. As for the people that wonder why I didn't use Deadpool I'm going to go out a limb and say that those are the folks that have seen the new Wolverine movie, well this idea was dreamed up before that movie came out. Besides I don't think I can write his insane talking style for long without going crazy.

* * *

Xander held his assault rifle on the Moon Knight as the trio of other heroes strode into the library. In the two days since they had last seen each other the other trio appeared to have gone through just as many if not more changes than they had. Like them the British trio had all grown and bulked up quite a bit. The girl like Buffy had lost her original hair color it seemed, and now instead of a white British girl with bushy brown hair she was half White half Asian girl with light purple hair that fell down in curls. She also had a red tattoo that nearly covered half of one side of her face. The other two had less noticeable changes in their appearances; of course the masks that they wore hid the signs of any changes that they may have gone through. His eyes noticed that the guy dressed as Moon Knight had drawn a TEC-9 and his wand in answer to the gun being pointed at his group. "Spector," Xander found himself saying as he eyed the masked figure.

"Castle," the other man returned noticing the white death head symbol on the nearly all black uniform of the Punisher.

"How you doing Widow?" Psylocke greeted coolly, as she activated her psychic knife in case she should need it. With the way both side looked like they were more than willing to attack. The Black Widow didn't respond instead merely watching for anything that could be considered as an attack or the signal to attack.

"Wolverine," Buffy said from where she was watching.

"Spider," Wolverine responded as he finally figured out why this girl's scent was so familiar it was a lot like Jessica Drew's the original Spiderwoman. True this person wasn't wearing the traditional costume, wearing street clothes instead of her traditional threads, the glowing green light that surrounded her fist was the last clue he needed to I.D her.

The two leaders were obviously waiting for one or the other to make a move. One had claws extended for combat while the other had green glowing fists as a venom blast was aimed at the leader of the other group. "So, we going to party or are you going to try and be reasonable and back off and try coming in again?" Spiderwoman questioned Wolverine having already tagged him as the leader of the group. She knew with the Wolverine leading them they wouldn't back down very easily and would have to probably beat each other up before he would back off and come again of course with the Punisher on their side that meant that they could then hunt them. Inside she was mentally going over what it was that she knew of the costumed figure before her, hoping she could come up with a workable plan before the fur began to fly.

"You know I can't do that Jess, not my style." Wolverine returned to the person that he had memories of working with at one time the only problem though was that hadn't really been the person before him, nor had it really been him. While they have the memories of working together they really were only meeting each other for the first time today and had to just consider the other as copies of some sort for the moment.

"I was afraid you were going to say that, I suppose that means that we're going to have a throw down fight now to determine who gets their way."

"We don't have too, you could just let us through maybe even walk away from this and let us deal with this guy." Wolverine said with a chuckle as he spared a glance at the British librarian. Spiderwoman returned his smile knowing as well as he did that she and her team weren't about to walk away from defending someone that they felt alright with.

"Let's do this then," Wolverine said before lunging at the girl with the memories of a friend.

Spiderwoman performed a back flip and fired off her venom blasts at the charging mutant. Wolverine grunted as one of the blasts struck him. Moving forward the mutant lashed out with his leg kicking the girl in the gut and then performed a spin kick that sent her sailing. Spiderwoman landed on the wall with her limbs spread out and glared at the mutant that had hit her. A moment ago he had been pale but due to his healing factor the venom blast was already loosing affect on her opponent. From her position on the wall she glanced at her friends. Punisher and Moon Knight had each rushed each other rather than risking a gun fight. A part of her was relieved to see that as she doubted that the library could withstand that kind of assault, not to mention that Giles would probably find a way to kill them if anything happened to his books. Of course the two couldn't just go at it hand to hand; no they each had to draw weapons. Punisher was now wielding a pair of knives and Moon Knight was using an extendable staff. She looked over at Black Widow and Psylocke who were both moving around like they were Slayers or Jet Li as they spun around each other.

A roar made the Slayer turn away from her view of the other fights to see Wolverine had finally healed himself and was rushing at the wall that she was clinging to. She pushed herself back and let the claws dig into the walls. "Oh great, do you know how much the principle is going to blame for that?" She complained as she dropped down to the ground and then mule kicked Wolverine in the ribs sending the mutant flying back the way that he had come.

"Careful darling you're started to sound more like Spiderman than you." Wolverine cautioned as his boots skidded against the ground.

"Gee you really know how to talk to a girl." She snapped as she lunged forward. Wolverine causally side stepped the strike and returned with an elbow to her shoulders. The girl yelped as the adamantium enforced limb connected to her. Wolverine then lunged with his claws which the girl managed to lean back enough for the claws to pass over her.

With the arms extended over her, the girl grabbed at the arms and jerked forward sending the mutant's head through the stair railing. Wolverine snorted as he brushed the broken bits of wood off of him. As much as he hated to admit it, Spiderwoman was giving him a real workout it was as if she was faster than he remembered. The mutant kicked back and smirked as he felt his boot smash into Spiderwoman's face. While the girl was trying to get her bearings he flipped himself back to his feet. "Not bad," Wolverine complimented mockingly, "you're almost a match for me."

The girl's eyes narrowed dangerously at that comment. "Trust me I'm more than you can handle," Spiderwoman returned as she flipped over him grabbing him by the back of his shirt as she sailed over him she tossed him into the wall as quickly and with as much strength as she could manage.

Wolverine grunted as he slammed into the wall. "All right, that one actually hurt." The mutant admitted, as he climbed to his feet. Either Jessica had been holding back all of those years that he had known her or this girl was a heck of a lot stronger than the original Spiderwoman was.

"So you're more than just Jessica then," the mutant said with a grin.

"Yeah that's right, just like you're more than just Wolverine, or is it Logan, or maybe it's Patch. I can never seem to keep track of which name you're using. So show me what you got magic boy." Spiderwoman taunted the mutant.

"My pleasure," Wolverine said sheathing his claws and then he drew his wand out with a speed that would have put many others to shame and began to silently cast a handful of various curses at Spiderwoman.

Spiderwoman began performing various acrobatic feats trying to stay ahead of the various attacks that were being thrown her way. She sent a few venom blasts back, but those were mainly used to throw his aim off more than anything else. The Slayer part of her recognized that this fight was just causing damage and sooner or later the mutant would think up a spell that would be able to catch her by surprise. She wasn't Spiderman with a spider sense though, her slayer spidey sense only worked on detecting big bads it didn't help her fight against beings that were shooting at her.

Spiderwoman managed to bounce back and forth for a moment before she closed the distance between them. Wolverine extended his claws to meet her and Spiderwoman ducked beneath the fist and wrapped her arms around his waist picked him up and slammed him into the ground she then bounced away just as a foot lashed out nearly hitting her. As she flew through the air a bombarding hex caught her, and sent her flying into one of the book shelves. The pair both climbed to their feet glaring at each other.

"Had enough yet?" Wolverine questioned panting slightly.

"Nope how about you?" Spiderwoman returned holding her side tenderly where she had slammed into the bookshelf.

"Eh, gotta say this is a fun party and we're not done yet." Wolverine said as he leveled his wand at Spiderwoman. He fired a reducto curse and watched as the red beam flew toward his opponent.

Spiderwoman reacted by sending a venom blast back and the two attacks met and locked against each other. The pair grunted as they tried to overpower the other, but Harry was a well trained wizard whom now had the confidence to fight back and Buffy now had the strength and power to fight from a long distance the two were going to be in a stalemate until one of them slipped and made a mistake.

* * *

Punisher and Moon Knight glared at each other and began circling each other. Each of them had drawn their preferred weapons for up close work. "I don't get it Punisher, you usually don't interfere in the affairs of others or at least you attack the criminals that run the underworld. Instead I find you here protecting a person touched with darkness." Moon Knight said trying to persuade the other man that this wasn't his fight.

"Big talk from a man that is attacking a librarian." Punisher returned angrily a part of him wanted to be out on the street dealing with the various scum that slipped under the radar that was the Slayer's duties, but right now he had other things to worry about than the criminal side of the world. Besides too many demons and vampires got away with so many murders that he figured that if he were to slaughter the magical killers that he would almost make up for the fact that he wasn't going after criminals. "Enough talk, let's do this." The other man nodded and the two men rushed at each other.

Punisher led off by throwing one of knives, flicking his wrist he felt another blade fall into his hand. Moon Knight batted the flying blade out of the air then twirled the staff so that Punisher would slam himself into his weapon. Punisher jumped back and let the staff whistle in the air in front of his face. The two then began moving around each other swing their weapons at each other. The two men were equally matched fighters neither of them were able to catch the other off guard. Punisher would slash at the cape or make some cut on the costume and Moon Knight would respond by slamming his staff into the body of the Punisher. The two men glared neither wanting to take their eyes off of their opponent. The two could each see the guns that were strapped to their sides, but because of the closeness of this fight and the speed that each of them moved they couldn't chance using those weapons without drawing attention to the room.

"Would you just go down already?" Moon Knight growled, as his staff passed underneath the feet of the Punisher.

"Don't think so," Punisher said in equal annoyance as his foot lashed out and missed knocking the white clad vigilante down by a mere few inches. The two ran at each other and locked their weapons against each other. As the steel of the combat knives strained against the staff the two men continued as they used their legs to kick or block each other but neither of them were able to connect with a blow that would give them an advantage.

* * *

Psylocke growled in frustration as she tried to read her opponents mind, but no matter what she did or tried the redhead's mind seemed just out of her mental grasp. It was as if it was there but not there at the same time making it impossible for her to do anything that might alter the fight between the two of them. This was not like fighting the handful of martial artists that could perform thought and action as one seamless process, no there was something more to what was going on. It felt as if there was a telepathic shielding in this room that was preventing her from locking onto anyone in the room other than to realize that someone was there. She didn't understand that though until the other night she didn't think telepathy even existed if what Snape had told Harry during their first occulmency lessons was true about true telepathy not really existing. So how could this group already have devised a method to block hers? It would require some knowledge on how telepathy worked to properly shield the mind from her. Where had they gained the ability to counter mental attacks then?

"It is a bit harder when people manage to level the playing field isn't it?" Black Widow mocked the psychic ninja as she lashed out with her fist. The mutant grunted as she blocked the attack with her arm then returned the favor by lashing out with her knee that forced the spy to back off. The two girls spun away from each other and eyed each other with interest as they tried to figure how best they might end the fight neither of them wanting the fight to last any longer than required. The pair leaped at each other and as they met in the air they exchanged a pair of punches and kicks before they passed each other again. Psylocke inwardly growled she hadn't been able to use her psychic knife on her opponent.

As the pair landed on the ground Black Widow's arm shot up and she fired off her widow's bite. Psylocke responded by performing the splits watching the energy bolt sail over her head. The mutant returned the attack by sending out some psychic blasts while not as effective as her psychic knife if one of them hit the red head they might incapacitate or confuse her long enough for her to press her attack. The pair rolled and rushed each other, neither of them had hit their marks but that didn't mean that they would stop their attacks. The two rushed at each other again, Psylocke's hand ignited as she brought her psychic knife out and began leading her attacks with this causing the Black Widow to either block the arm or duck beneath the strikes as she couldn't chance being struck by the weapon.

The pair wrapped each other in different holds, Psylocke had her hand ready to strike but it was only because of Black Widow's arm holding her back that she had so far been unable to connect with her and strike. The pair were now locked and waiting for the other to try something new as they pushed against each other.

* * *

The three standoffs were stopped as the venom blast and spell from Wolverine's wand were fed enough power that a small explosion came from the two knocking everyone back. Everyone groaned as they slowly climbed back to their feet. "Not bad," Wolverine complimented as he climbed to his feet his wand still clutched in his hand. "But it's time ta end this." The other two intruders nodded as they drew their own wands and aimed them at the other group.

"If that's the way that you want to go with this." Punisher growled, as he drew a pair of Claridge Hi-Tec's and leveled them at his opponents.

"You don't want to try that," Psylocke said, her wand changing to be ready to counter the gun. The witch in her already thinking about what spell would be best to use against the large number of bullets that could come spewing out of the gun with but a moment's warning from Wolverine and her psychic senses that would feel the attack moments before it came. The largest amount that each magazine for each of those guns was 30 meaning that something like a shielding charm would only be able to counter about a quarter of the fire power before it broke through she would need something more. The ninja in her prepared to leap out of the way of the attack, the different choices she had were a bit difficult but she was sure she would make the right choice should Punisher pull the triggers on his weapons.

"You're the ones that upped the game not us." Black Widow returned from her crouched position on the desk, her widow's bite ready if she should need it. Buffy merely nodded her head in silent agreement as she balanced effortlessly on the stair banister.

"**ENOUGH!"** Rupert Giles yelled as he watched the six teens prepare themselves to try and have a shootout with each other as if they thought that they could simply kill each other. "You are not about to turn this library into the O.K corral!" He growled as walked right up to the unknown group and glared at them he sized them up as if looking for something. Look at the mess that you have already made with your fighting. He said waving at the room. They all turned to look around and saw dents in the floor, a broken banister, bookshelf, and burn marks on the wall. The schoolchildren in the group felt nervous at the scrutiny that could have given McGonagall a run for her money. The man sighed before he lost some anger in his glare. He took his glasses off and began cleaning them as he chose his next words carefully not wanting a restart of the hostilities. "Perhaps we can talk instead of fighting first, who knows we might be able to help each other or perhaps even be on the same side."

Everyone looked surprised at this. "Giles you sure you know what it is that you're doing?" Spiderwoman questioned the librarian nervously, as she watched the man eyeball the group.

"Yes I believe that I do." The Watcher assured the young woman. "Besides anything is better than watch you lot destroy my library." The scoobies all winced at this, wondering how long till they would be able to get back in the Watcher's good graces for this mess latest that they had made.

"If you're sure then," Xander said as he holstered his guns.

"Well?" Psylocke questioned her friends curiously.

"Might as well hear what they have to say." Wolverine returned to his friend getting a nod of agreement from Moon Knight. The trio very reluctantly lowered their wands and hid them in their belts.

Giles nodded his thanks before turning to the new group of teens. "I take it that the three of you regrettably were forced to kill last night as well, before realizing just what it was that you were doing." Giles asked them sadly. The two groups were tensed and ready to fight each other if they had too. This peace that was between them was temporary at best and he needed to get as much information as possible before they decided to disappear or start fighting again. Using Xander's infernal comic books, which were part of the reason that they were all like this Giles had learned a bit about the powers and abilities of all six teens.

"Geeze, what was your first bloody clue?" The girl snarled her hand glowing with some sort of pink energy.

"Easy there lady." Xander warned as he leveled a glare at the telepath, his hands itching to head towards his guns.

"Little uncle can you not handle your friends?" Willow asked in Russian. The surprising thing to all of the teens was that they could understand every word that she had just spoken.

"Great another thing to try and understand." Wolverine grumbled.

"So you want to explain why you felt like you needed to come back here?" Buffy questioned, as she finally removed the jacket she had been wearing showing a shoulder harness that held a pair of Smith and Wesson 4506's. The girl glared at the people that had attacked them at their home base. She crossed her arms, her hands brushing against her guns. The casual way that she wore the guns would have surprised anyone that knew the young woman considering the bad phobia about guns that she was known for before Halloween. "Or better yet, start with why you attacked Giles in the first place." She added giving them a glare.

The three wand users looked at the girl before backing up a couple of steps and having a quick whispered conversation. "Well, what do you think?" Harry questioned his friends.

"We don't have a choice Harry; they can match us and keep us at a stalemate." Ron grumbled as he eyed the others that were watching them.

"I agree, we don't have a choice," Hermione said reluctantly, "they need to know something."

"How much though?"

"They just need to know that we're looking for information they may not know anything about You-Know-Who or Horcruxes."

"You sure about that one Hermione?" Ron asked doubtfully. "I still don't trust that guy." He said nodding to where Giles was standing.

Hermione gave the boy an exasperated look. "Yes Ron I'm sure, if they followed You-Know-Who we would be swarming with Death Eaters by now so I'm thinking that whatever they know about magic has nothing to do with our world."

"In other words after all of this we find out that they probably don't have any information for us." Harry grumbled as he drew out a cigar and chewed on it lightly.

"Yes that does sound right, however we might learn about him. Besides this group appears to be familiar with magic, who knows they might even be able to explain what's happened to us the way that the librarian was talking it sounds as if he has some ideas about it."

"I guess I'll have to take what I can get." The wizard/mutant hybrid grumbled as he removed his mask. "What? They already know what we look like," he pointed out to his friends, "we met them in that Halloween shop remember? Besides if we really want answers about what happened to us that night we're gonna have to tell them a bit about us whether we like it or not. Besides Hermione here can't exactly be forgotten now can she?" They looked at Asian beauty that was tall, well rounded, purple hair, and had a red tattoo covering one of her eyes before nodding in agreement.

The other two sighed and nodded in agreement as much as they disliked it they would have to trust them somewhat. "So what are they anyways," Ron questioned the other two, "are they muggles or something else? Because I didn't see a wand on any of them."

Hermione looked grim at this. "Your right Ron, and they have no idea about whom You-Know-Who is either. Yet on the other hand the way that the librarian talked it was as if he knew what triggered our change to be a bit more permanent."

"Right, so we can't obliviate them then," Harry said running his hand through his hair in agitation, "which means we'll have to be honest with them. Besides I doubt that we would be able to catch them all by surprise anyways."

"So we tell them that we're on a classified mission that has to do with soul magic. They've all got the memories and skills of former military agents which, means that they should understand if we can't talk about what our mission is." Ron pointed out to his friends. "This way we can give them some of the highlights of the wizarding world and the war and we can get some help from them."

"Seems like our best chance," Hermione agreed, "the only other choice we have is trying to make them all forget and if they really do have knowledge of magic then it could do more damage than help. We could do a little bit of searching and see just how much magic it is that they actually know and if we do have to take their memories we'll be more sure about doing it. For all we know they could be squibs that live in the muggle world."

"And they must have some connections in the magical world or they wouldn't have this library of magic books, nor would they have those goblin weapons in their weapons case."

"Yes, we will need to ask about that." Hermione muttered pulling out a pen and paper and began making a list of things that they needed to investigate. "We also need to know why they have all of those weapons before they were possessed. Either they were being kept there for the museum or there is something more going on here than we know."

"It is supposed to be a hellmouth Mione." Harry reminded his longtime friend. "Maybe they know enough about magic to survive if those sorts of things attack them."

"Possibly," Hermione conceded to her friend, "but I'm sure that there is something more to this and I intend to find out what it is."

"So are we agreed to trust them about our world then?" Ron asked them, the pair turned to look at Harry.

The raven haired mutant/wizard was the only one of the group who might for some reason disagree with their reason for trusting in the unknowns and since this was his mission they would respect his choices, besides they had learned the cost of not trusting in their friend and what his gut was telling him. "Fine," he growled, "but Ron and I need to learn the obiviate spell too." Harry finally agreed with the other two.

While the wizards were talking Buffy kept her head cocked slightly as she was listening in on what the group was saying. It was a little known fact that Spiderwoman had enhanced senses as well, and while they weren't as enhanced as Wolverine's when you add in the slayer upgrades that her powers had she could easily overhear what was being said across the room. This particular ability was one that she had perfected once she had come to Sunnydale. Back then she only had the enhanced hearing of a Slayer but it had saved her from detention several times from oblivious teachers as she would sometimes be caught dozing in class but when questioned she only had to tune into Willow's voice and supply the answer. While not a particular honest way of getting through her classes, it kept her out of detention, kept her mom happy, and the streets of Sunnydale safe. Giles obviously disapproved of the system but then he wasn't the one going out every night and so had chalked it up to one of the allowances or perks that Buffy got for being a Slayer. The only condition that he had on it was that she couldn't ever use this system during a test. Willow had been indignant at the thought that she would help someone cheat on a test though which had been amusing for the other two while the Watcher had spent the next few days apologizing.

"So, they saying anything interesting?" Xander questioned his friend, but was quickly silenced with a look before pointing at Wolverine. Xander looked at the shorter teen before nodding in understanding; if Buffy was close enough to listen in on them then they were close enough for Wolverine to listen in on what they said. They would discuss what she had heard later when they were sure that the other group couldn't overhear what they were saying about their conversation.

"Giles how's Angel?" Willow questioned while her friends were in the middle of a silent conversation.

The Watcher looked over at the vampire who was sitting inside a spell. "He appears to be fine, and the fact that the young lady over there has yet to do anything I would presume to believe that they have yet to break the spell."

"Good," the redhead nodded the group turned though as they saw that the magic users were heading their way.

Buffy turned away from them before turning back to look at the group. "So have you come to decision?" She questioned them.

"Yeah darling we have," Wolverine replied, "we'll try and play nice before we try and bash your heads in." The fact that the two boys had removed their masks was probably the closest thing to a peace offering that they were going to get.

"Very good then," Giles said with a relieved smile. "Now then what demons or other supernatural beings are you trying to learn how to stop?"

"Huh?" The redheaded boy questioned in confusion over the questions that were being asked of them that as far as he was concerned had no bearing on their current problem.

"Well I presume that there is some type of demon or spirit that is after you and that is why you were searching through my collection." Giles explained to the teens eagerly.

"In other words these books don't have a whole lot on magic then?" Harry said dejectedly as he began to realize that they may have made a mistake.

"No, not all that many spells," Giles agreed unaware of the slumped shoulders of the trio, "my collection mainly contains information on the various supernatural beings that are known about."

"Anything else?" Psylocke asked hopefully as her eyes looked up and down the various titles.

Giles pondered for a moment. "Well we do have a few magic books that we gathered from various sources. We also have a few books that explain various rituals for various things. Perhaps if you were to explain things to us we would know a bit more about just what it is that you are searching for."

"Can't really hurt," the redhead said to his friends.

"Yeah and while all of this is interesting," Buffy interrupted it might make this thing a whole lot easier if we had names or we can go by the codenames if we want to.

"Oh, um, yes that would make this go quite a bit easier on all of us." Giles agreed looking slightly embarrassed that he had forgotten that little detail.

"Can you believe it Will's, Buffy is giving Giles manner lessons." Xander joked to his friend, "and here I thought England was supposed to be the land of members and of that crap."

"Maybe he's having an off day." Willow said while still grinning.

Giles decided the best way to ignore this was to introduce himself and get this over with then they could down to more important things. "Ah, yes well my name Rupert Giles, next to me is Buffy, and next to her are Willow and Xander the person sitting over there is Angel, but he is in the middle of something right now. So, who are you?"

The two boys nodded before the girl stepped forward. "My name is Hermione, the one with red hair is Ron and the one with black hair is Harry. Here is what we can tell you we come from the British wizarding world."

"Never could have guessed that you were Brits," Xander joked as he found a spot to make himself comfy, but still be able to shoot if the need arose.

The girl shot a glare at him which he merely smirked at. "The British wizarding world is currently at war because of certain beliefs of some of the citizens of the wizarding world."

"What type of beliefs?" Willow questioned intently.

"Pureblood wizard's are elite, halfbloods are acceptable, muggleborns are trash or second class citizens if they're lucky, and muggles are target practice."

"And how do you know the difference between purebloods and half bloods and what are muggles?"

"Muggles are people born without magic, muggleborns are magicals with muggle parents, purebloods are wizarding families that have been around a few hundred years, and half bloods are usually people that are from the marriage of a muggleborn and pureblood though I think there are a few instances of a pureblood marrying a muggle. The last group is what is called a squib which is a person with no magic that is from a pureblood family."

"Great we got wannabe Hitler's waving magic wands around." Willow grumbled in annoyance, her mind going over the various stories that she had heard about how Jews were treated.

"At its most basic level yes," Hermione agreed with the assessment of the other girl.

"Huh, sounds more like a dog show that's gone a bit whacko if you ask me." Buffy told her friends getting an approving nod and grin from Xander.

"I agree, specially with all of the pureblood talk or maybe it's a horse race."

"I presume that is why you're here then you are on some sort of wartime mission?" Giles questioned the group ignoring the other two who were busy mocking these wizards beliefs.

"Yeah, we have to do something that will weaken the leader of this group before we can kill him or he'll just keep coming back, he did something to himself that makes it almost impossible to kill him." Ron explained while leaving out any useful information.

"So that is why you attacked me the other night then?" Giles pressed.

"Yeah sorry about that," the red head said, seeing as his friends didn't appear overly repentant. "It's just we meet two English blokes on the same day in the very town that we think might have answers for some of our questions, we thought that you might be guarding a secret or some information that might help us. That dark magical tattoo you have on your arm doesn't exactly make us feel comfortable either mate." Ron pointed to the arm with the tattoo to emphasize his point to the man who reluctantly nodded his head.

"Tattoo?" Buffy perked up at this with a smile. "Giles have you been holding out on us do you actually have some coolness inside of you?"

"That tattoo is not something that I want to talk about ever." Giles said glaring at the redhead and the girl to his annoyance neither of them so much as batted an eye under his glare.

"So who and what are you," Hermione questioned, "and how the bloody hell are you blocking my telepathy?"

"I don't think I'm ever going to get used to Hermione swearing." Ron whispered to Harry with a grin who nodded his head in agreement with a chuckle.

"Yes, well how much of the demonic side of the magical world do you know about?" Giles questioned them. "It's obvious that you know spellcasting and such though from the way that you describe your life you don't have all that much experience with other sides of the magical world."

"The demonic side?" Harry asked with a bit of confusion, as a wizard the closest thing that any of them had come to a demonic creature would have to be the vampire that he and Hermione met briefly at Slughorn's Christmas party and that vampire was hardly all that threatening his Wolverine memories were going through times in limbo and the whole Inferno problem. "In this world I've never had any problems with demons." Harry admitted to the man.

"Yes well, the demonic side of magic the demons and vampires of the world that must be hunted and stopped before they cause mayhem and death. That is what Buffy here does, she is the one that stands as a defense against all of those creatures that go bump in the night all of the various monsters that you were told were simply stories are real and will come and hunt you if it were not for Buffy."

"What's so great about her?" Ron asked, "I mean sure after Halloween she seems to be something, but other than that she doesn't seem to be much."

"Then you fight her next time," Harry grumbled remembering the feeling of being tossed through various bits of furniture.

"Yes I imagine you were surprised." Xander joked, "probably though that Spiderwoman had gone and taken her vitamins."

"Something like that." The mutant muttered.

"Go on Giles you say it, we all know that you're just dying to say it anyways." Willow told the man the other two chuckled while Giles blushed slightly.

"Very well, since it will explain much about ourselves if they hear it."

"Just look at him," Buffy said, "puffing his chest up and everything to say that little speech of his."

Giles ignored the joking group of friends who did their best to make light of their problems. Turning to the trio of magic users he gave them the 'speech' as the others liked to mockingly call it. "Into each generation a girl is born: one girl in all the world, a chosen one. She alone will wield the strength and skill to fight the vampires, demons, and the forces of darkness; to stop the spread of their evil and the swell of their numbers. She is the Slayer."

"Great another prophecy," Ron complained.

"No not so much of a prophecy as a Chosen One." Giles explained to the boy.

"Even better," Ron mocked, "cause there so much difference between the two."

"Not now Ron," Harry told his friend, "back to the subject though what exactly is it that a Slayer can do?"

"Let's just say that she already had certain enhancements before Halloween and leave it at that." Giles returned.

"Fair enough," Hermione returned, "as long as we're on the subject though do we know what happened to us that night anyways?"

"Yes actually, we do know what happened on that particular front." Giles said relieved that they were willing to drop the matter on Buffy's other abilities, while in comparison to her new abilities they weren't that much they still added onto her spider powers and expanded them to a level beyond what they were expecting and might give them an advantage if they should need it.

"A spell using Chaos energy was used, the spell was centered on a bust of Janus. Because of it being focused through the statue and using chaos energy which I might add that the hellmouth has an abundance of the spell was able to cover the entire town with little or no effort."

"It was a ritual based spell then," Hermione began in understanding, "because of it being ritualistic based rather than focused through a wand or other kind of foci it was easier for the unexpected to happen."

"Yes indeed, in fact you lot are probably all extremely lucky that none of you were killed due to the stress that your minds and bodies went through that night." Giles informed the group. "You're mental and physical states were instantly changed at least once possibly twice, the stress could have killed you had it not been for some of what you had done. In short the very essence of who you were changed. I am still researching what all of the side effects are but I think I can be reasonably certain that you are not the characters that you dressed as nor are you the people that you were a few days ago. Rather you are some amalgamation of the two personalities."

"In English please." Xander and Ron begged of the older man.

"He means a combination." Willow and Hermione explained to the two boys.

"What do you mean what we had done is it because we're wizards and she's a Slayer?" Ron questioned.

"No, nothing like that," Giles told the boy, "what I mean is that because of the sacrifices."

"He used blood magic?" Hermione questioned looking sick.

"No," Giles said, "the sacrifices were unintentional results from the spell."

"What kind of sacrifices?"

"One of the most horrific type of sacrifices." The Watcher explained to the group of wand users. "The spell affected everyone that wore a costume from that store; unfortunately not everyone wore the costume of heroes but of creatures that were less than pure intentions. A number of the beings that you did take out were in fact ah people that were dressed as monsters. One of the tenants of magic particularly ritual styled magic is that the sacrifice of an innocent can have most unexpected affect particularly for the more extreme type of spells."

"All right bub, stop beating around the bush with all of the doom and gloom talk who was sacrificed?" Harry growled out at the Watcher.

"Who mainly wears Halloween costumes?" Giles snapped back at the man.

Hermione gasped as she finally caught on what the price for her new powers and abilities now was. "You mean that the children?"

"Yes, a number of the creatures that you killed that night were children in the shells of monsters; the transformations were complete that not even your enhanced senses and mental abilities were able to tell the difference between human and demonic creatures."

"That's going to take some time to get used to." Ron said having gone slightly green as he recalled some of the killing that he had done that night and how some of those deaths were his fault. "So, what now?"

"Now you have a job to finish," Xander returned to the group. "As harsh as it sound all of those kids were nothing more than casualties in the war we're fighting."

"But we did it!" Ron argued.

"You weren't in control," Giles returned, "the Moon Knight was the one that did those things not yourself so you must control yourself over the whole matter."

"They're right Ron," Harry said cutting his friend off before he could argue with the man. "If it makes you feel any better go to their funerals otherwise stop arguing about it."

"Harry," Hermione said cautiously not liking the heartless way her friend was discussing the ones that had just died. In her mind she was replaying the argument about killing that her friend and Remus had on the night that they had gotten him away from his relatives home now her friend was acting like the deaths of all of those children didn't even bother him.

"Don't worry about me Mione," Harry returned to his friend flashing her a strained smile with haunted eyes. The look the boy gave her was the only thing that convinced her that her friend was not ignoring this but rather he was trying to be strong for the others.

"So now what?" Buffy questioned the group.

"Now we help our friends with learning what they can about soul magic while they're here." Giles explained to the young woman. "I suppose that your war is bleeding out into the rest of the world which is why so many unexplainable things have been happening in England."

"Yeah, everything from giant attacks in the country, too Death Eaters terrorizing anyone that gets in their way." Ron said bitterly as he remembered everything that he knew about the war.

"Very well, let us begin, I am sure that we can hide you for a few days while you do your search for any information on soul magic and anything else that you feel you may need information on."

"I still want to know how you're creating this psychic dampening field." Hermione complained to the scoobies. "It could be dangerous for me, I need to know how it's done. Is it a machine or is it mystical?"

"It's mystical," Angel said from where he was sitting.

Wolverine stared at the dark haired pretty boy for a moment. "Ya'll do realize that the guy over there is dead don't ya?" The mutant asked as he examined the figure.

"How did you know?" Giles spluttered as he watched the figure identify Angel as something other than human.

"Smelled him," Wolverine replied simply tapping the side of his nose.

"Of course, you're enhanced senses make it possible for you to detect the dead flesh that is Angel." Giles muttered in understanding.

"So what is he?" Wolverine repeated.

"Dead boy here is supposedly one of the only good vampires," Xander told the British trio, "or so he tells us that is."

"Yes, and since vampires are resistant to mental attacks like telepathy it means that we don't fear telepaths." Angel explained to the wand users. "Giles here knew a spell that would allow me to place my ability in this room by mystically connecting me to the room I created a psychic dampening field. We figured it would be the best defense against your powers." The vampire said nodding toward Hermione who looked annoyed but nodded in understanding, she couldn't really fault them for doing that as it was a sound defense.

"How did you know that we were coming anyways?" Harry questioned with interest.

"Figured that you would come back sooner or later." Buffy returned.

"So how did you know we still had our powers?"

"Well that was actually fairly easy actually factually." The Slayer smugly told him. "You guys didn't exactly cover your tracks while operating in town, killed a few demons here, terrorized someone else there. You guys were making waves, tidal waves even. Here everyone likes to know who the players are, particularly the trouble making kind. The only ones that make people talk more are the troublemaking kind with lots of money, and since you were waving money around to buy all sorts of toys we figured that you would be coming back here sooner or later."

"That and we tapped into some nearby security cameras and saw the three of you in costume scoping the school out." Willow told the trio as she patted a computer proudly. "We figured you were either mapping the place out or were waiting for the moment of the most confusion to slip in when people were least likely to notice you."

"Yes, you can probably break the spell now Angel." Giles told the vampire who nodded and broke the mystic circle and began cleaning up the mess that he had created by temporarily bonding with the room. Hermione breathed a sigh of relief as she felt her psychic abilities come about to full power it was as if her mind had just been opened for the first time and she was finally free to use it for the first time. She did a quick mental scan and while everyone had mental shields of various strengths she could now sense the minds of everyone in the room, she never thought that the light noise of peoples thoughts would be such a welcome feeling. The only problem was that she could still feel nothing from the vampire that was nearby it was as if he was still not there it was a bit disconcerting for her.

"Not bad," Ron grudgingly admitted. He hated to admit it, but they had been arrogant and sloppy and because of that they had been stopped and countered in almost everything except in the fight and that was only because they hadn't been willing to use anything stronger than handguns. Just because they had these powers didn't mean that they could run around half cocked they would have to be much more careful next time or they would end up in trouble they were actually extremely lucky that they had run into people that seemed to be in the business of being heroes as well.

"So let's begin then," Giles said seemingly almost excited about the concept of having something all new research.

Hermione and Willow nodded in agreement and with excited grins followed after the librarian, the other four to merely stare at the three bookworms and shake their heads in disbelief. "They're multiplying Buff." Xander whined to his friend. "First there was just Willow, then there was Giles and now there's her. We're being slowly but surely overtaken by smart people in here." The teasing grins that the pair shared calmed the two wizards from leaping to the defense of their friend.

"It gets worse though Xander," Buffy said with a slight pout.

"How can it get worse?" Ron asked glad that there were now three people that liked to do research instead of just Hermione maybe this way they could get out of the research part and let them deal with it.

"Cause they'll expect us to help them out." Harry growled as he slid a chair the boys groaned as they slipped into their chairs waiting for the others to come back with what books they could find on soul magic.

* * *

Okay leave me lots of reviews now please heck i could get used to 10 reviews per chapter.


	4. Chapter 4

Buffy flipped off of one vampire and while in the air tossed a stake from both of her hands nailing two of the crowd of vampires that were attacking her. The days of a single vampire or demon coming after her were long gone now with her recent power increase she now stood up to a dozen different vampires now with ease. The fact of it was she had to patrol alone now or there weren't enough vampires for her to slay on her own. Sure the others came but with the six of them it hadn't been hard to cut the town into sections and do one of the most thorough cleanings that the hellmouth had ever had.

During the day while the scoobies were at school Harry, Hermione, and Ron researched things for the quest of theirs. None of the Sunnydale heroes knew much about what they were looking for except that it had something to do with soul magic, they could never get anything more than that out of the group. It made helping them in their research painfully slow, as the Scoobies had no idea just what it was that they were looking for. That didn't mean that they weren't busy though as they had hit most of the demon and vampire nests and strongholds scattered throughout the town. With the combined abilities of the group now they had made the streets as safe as the ones of a major city with a high crime rate.

The slayer landed in the middle of the vampires and grinned mischievously as she looked at the vampires that were now facing off against her with her enhanced senses she knew that at least two of them were older than the others so might be counted as Master vampires with a pack of fledglings. The sight really wasn't all that uncommon anymore vampire hunting parties had been forced to double their numbers to survive the hunting of Sunnydale. Buffy drew her guns and fired into the knees of the two masters who fell painfully to the ground. The slayer chuckled as she watched the pair of vamps struggle to get back to their feet.

She holstered her weapons and then allowed the two enchanted bracelets that she wore on her wrist to activate and a pair of blades fell into her hands. The bracelets were nice little babies as far as the group was concerned. Giles had gotten in contact with the L.A supernatural world once Harry had given him an amount of money to work, with none of them had felt the need to tell the watcher that some of that money had been the result of finding a few demon money chests. Once he had gotten in contact with the weapons dealer they had quickly arranged for each and every member of the team to be outfitted with the enchanted bracelets. Each bracelet held three or four different weapons that they could summon, the only bad thing was that the magic's couldn't support weapons that were any more advanced than medieval weaponry so they had been forced to only use bladed weapons or similar styled weapons. Having a way to hide out weapons without having to worry about the unwanted bulge was a nice addition that all of them had quickly fallen for.

The Slayer smiled as she looked at the piles of dust that were now all that was left of the hunting party. They had hurt the vamps by taking this big group out, but at the rate they were going through the hellmouth soon there wouldn't be enough hunting for all of the heroes that were stationed around the hellmouth. They were still searching for Spike's hideout but weren't having a whole lot of luck, they had found an old factory and warehouse that he had once used but thanks to Drusilla he was getting just enough warning to make a break for it before they could track him down. It was actually becoming a bit of an aggravation as far as she was concerned; it seemed Angel was sharing her feelings of annoyance though since he had destroyed a large part of the factory before he had calmed down. She smiled happily it was time to go home, though she did have to do her homework although some parts weren't so hard anymore. Having the memories of the daughter of one of the High Evoloutionary's assistance's and being an agent trained by both H.Y.D.R.A and S.H.E.I.L.D made some of her schoolwork seem boring to say the least. Still she figured it was just as well when she thought of all of the late nights she had to spend out, maybe there was some fairness to the world after all, that or it was about to make things more painful than need be.

She stopped by the playground and saw that Angel was talking with Drusilla. A part of her wanted to be angry about seeing the two so close and intimate, but the other part of her understood things a bit more now. Harry forcing Angel to tell them everything he could about the two Master Vampires was probably a reason for that to though. Drusilla was his greatest regret and until he could overcome this regret he would never be able to stake the vampire seer. The wizards had compared her to an even crazier deadlier version of a friend of theirs. She did wonder how long it would have taken them to realize he had help if Harry hadn't forced the vampire to tell everything which happened to include a list of major skills and abilities.

The Slayer shook her concerns off and debated on whether or not she should wait for the vampire. Since their patrol was over for the night they could technically spend the night walking around instead of patrolling. Her section was clear, so she should be able to spend a few minutes goofing off of course there was her bed that was calling to her to.

The only bad part of that was the fact that half of the time the Slayer had nightmares about Halloween night that kept waking her up. The nightmares were hard to deal with as it was as if she was reliving all of the deaths that she had caused that night. She could remember the faces of all of those monsters, yet in her dreams they weren't monsters but children and teens as she killed them. In her dreams the costumes faded away and she saw each person that she killed as if they were truly human and not possessed. She knew her mom was worried about her, but there was nothing to do about it right now, hopefully the dreams would fade soon. The girl cast a longing look toward the pair of vampires before heading home. Angel was going to have to decide whether or not he could fight Drusilla or not and it would have to be soon.

* * *

Buffy grinned a greeting at the British trio as she noticed them slip into the Library behind Giles back. Not that that was all that difficult when you considered the fact that he had been talking to Jenny about something or other. She gave a quick report before heading into class. Her mind was still on the fact that Angel and Drusilla had been having secret meetings together, but she supposed that she would just have to ignore the guilt stricken vampire's need to fix his mistakes. "So, find what you guys are looking for yet?" She questioned with a grin.

Hermione scowled at the other girl. "Not a bloody thing love," the girl scowled at herself for cursing yet again, "I mean no."

Ron and Harry shot their friend amused grins as they continued to pour through the tomes that Giles was allowing them to use in their search. The pair were enjoying their friends current inability to stop cursing, which meant that the girl had probably been the one of their group to tell them off for doing the same thing. The pair kept quiet though proving that they were capable of controlling their tongues.

"Anything I can help you with?" She asked hopefully, it was hard being on the outside for a change but the three wand users still refused to give up what exactly it was that they were looking for. All she knew was that they were searching for something to do with soul magic and some people that may or may not have passed through town about thirty or forty years ago. Buffy only knew about searching for the guy because she knew that they had been roughing people up for information on some whacko who named himself after a Value mart a name that simply struck terror into people, and another guy that went by the name Riddle.

"Sorry," Ron apologized, "there's still nothing that we can share with you."

"Darn, I was hoping there was someone or something that I could go and hit."

"Nothing that we know of," Harry returned to the Slayer.

"Drat's, alright if you need me you know I'm around, and with Hermione here I'm sure that you can get me on the psychic hot line." The group nodded and watched her leave before turning back to the books that they were searching through. They had to find a way to destroy the Horcruxes, or there was really no point in gathering the enchanted items together. The trio turned back to their books and renewed searching for the answers that they needed.

* * *

Buffy found Xander and Willow outside the library looking somewhat tired as they were seated on some couches. "Bad night?" She questioned them as she looked them over.

"Patrol was alright," Xander grunted.

"Yeah it's the dreams that are getting to us." Willow told the Slayer, "Did you know I actually babysat some of those kids that we ah dealt with?"

"So you guys are going with the nightmares too huh?"

"Oh yeah, and judging by the circles under your eyes I'd say that they're getting to you too. Any ideas on how not to think about them?" Xander asked his friend hopefully. "The other me, is really not so great on getting grief counseling."

"I'd suggest a box of Oreos dumped in apple juice, but she may have moved past that stage." A new voice said as a young man stepped up behind the Slayer.

The girl whipped her head around and saw an old friend of hers standing before her. "Ford!" She exclaimed happily, as she grabbed the teen into a hug.

"Hey Summers how ya been," the teen questioned as he returned the hug. "Interesting new hairdo he continued, "did you finally decide that being a bottle blonde wasn't as fun as you thought?"

Buffy blushed as she ran her hand through her now raven colored locks. "Uh yeah, I thought it was about time for a change you know? Uh huh, though it does make it harder to play the whole dumb blonde card." She tried joking to her old friend as she tried to wave her new sense of hair style off. "Still though, I like it. What do you think?"

"Well it's definitely different," the boy said with a grin, "I mean I haven't seen you with dark hair since the second grade."

"So is it of the good?" Buffy asked nervously, as she looked at her hair.

"Oh yeah, it's good." The teen assured her.

"So Buff who's your friend?" Xander questioned the Slayer.

"Oh yeah, um, this is Billy Ford, we went to Hemry together."

"Xander," the boy said gruffly nodding to the other boy curtly.

"Willow." The redhead said in a more imperious voiced greeting.

Billy Ford gave the pair nervous looks, usually his easy going, friendly demeanor and boyish grin disarmed both males and females and allowed them to trust him. This pair seemed to be unaffected by his usual tricks though, and didn't seem to be too willing to trust him. The boy wondered when Buffy had switched friends from popular to scary. Even when she had become the Slayer she hadn't been like this.

"Speaking of, what are you doing here Ford?" The Slayer questioned her childhood friend knocking him out of his inner musings.

"Dad got transferred." The teen said with a grin focusing his efforts on her since she was his true target anyways. He just needed to keep her off balance for a few days anyways.

Buffy nodded her head in acceptance while Willow and Xander nodded though warning bells were now ringing in their heads. They were all trained to watch for when people lied, and right now Billy Ford had just very obviously lied to all of them about something. Normally they might have thought that Buffy would catch something like that as well, but she was on to big of a high from connecting with a piece of her pre-slayer days to notice the lie.

"I do have to get to the admissions office though." The boy told the group of friends, nervous at the suspicious glances that they were giving him. He had said or done something to tip them off.

"Just don't mention any of us when talking o Snyder." Xander warned the newbie. The guy thinks he's king of the mountain out of here, though personally I think it's to make up for the fact that he was a loser in school."

"Yeah that would definitely be the best way to get off on the right foot." Buffy agreed with her friend and teammate. "Otherwise you'll have Snyder all over you. If he does notice or say something about us going to Hemry together, say Buffy who, or say something about not liking me. It'll be oh so much easier on you if you do. Trust me on this one the little troll has it in for me and anyone I'm friends with."

"Alright," Ford said a little unsure about what it was that they were talking about. He couldn't ever consider a place where Buffy Summer's wasn't well liked by all that knew her. "I do have to go though."

"Well I'll walk you there then." Buffy told him, "Wouldn't want you to go and get lost now would we?" She joked at him. "I'll catch up with you guys in French." She told the other two before dragging her old friend off.

Xander locked eyes with Willow and the pair nodded, something was a bit off about Billy Ford, they were just going to have to see if they could figure it out. The pair tiredly climbed to their feet and headed toward the door that was their French class maybe they could catch up on sleep in there. It's not like they needed the class anymore sense it was one of the dozens of languages that the group now spoke.

* * *

Willow sighed as she looked at the warehouse that was in Ford's name. It wasn't really anything out of the ordinary as far as a building went; there were dozens of buildings just like it the only thing about this particular one was the bomb shelter addition. Her usual searches wouldn't have thought to grab the blue prints of the building, but since merging with the Black Widow she was a lot more cautious about just what it was that she did. The redhead felt a bit bad about not informing Buffy about what she was investigating, but this way there would be no need to explain herself if things went wrong. Besides if they didn't check in Psylocke would do a scan of the town for them. The two teenagers were both dressed in their new work clothes as well though. Angel led the pair doing his best to ignore the bulge under Xander's jacket and focused on finding out what it was that set him on edge about Buffy's old friend.

The trio slipped in, and were shown the way toward the bomb shelter that was beneath the main floor. Angel and Xander each took up a position on the upper platform while Willow made her way down the stairs confident that Xander and Angel would cover her if she needed it. As she walked around she noticed that the entire motif of the place seemed to have a definite vampire theme to it. She was stopped by a girl who started explaining to her about the 'Lonely Ones'. It seemed that the people here had a romanticized version of just what it was that a vampire was.

"Interesting," Xander shot at the girl from behind them, "you know I usually just think of them as pains in the neck or dust bags, but that's just me."

"So many have that misconception," the girl said with a smile, "but they that walk with the night are not interested in harming anyone. They are creatures above us, exalted."

Angel looked at the girl with pity and contempt "You're a fool he told her. "

"No arguments there," Xander said in agreement looking slightly annoyed that he had agreed with the vampire.

The girl flinched away from the pair. "You don't have to be so confrontational about it, other viewpoints than yours may be valid you know." The girl said meekly before she scurried away.

"I swear that I can't take the pair of you anywhere." Willow mock scolded the two. "I take it that you got what you needed and that's why you scared her off?" Black Widow questioned the ensouled vampire in annoyance letting a bit of a Russian accent slip out.

"Yeah, I've seen enough of these places to know just what we'll find." The vampire assured her. "Come on, I'll explain it to you on the way out of this little fantasy world here." The other two nodded as they followed after the vampire.

"You know it makes me wonder why Ford is sheltering these guys though," Punisher said, "I mean he is supposed to be the bestest friend of the Slayer, yet here he is getting these people thinking vampires are good things."

"Something we may just have to ask him about." Angel said as they climbed the steps.

* * *

Buffy was conflicted, she knew that Ford was lying to her she had smelled the vampire girl, and the direction that she had run off. Ford may know that she was a Slayer, but the fact that she was actually more than that didn't even mean anything to him. He probably was oblivious to the fact that vampire dust left a distinctive smell not mention if he had staked the vampire his clothes would have a nice film of dust all over them. The investigator part of her mind took all of these facts in with a glance. She had to give him credit for acting like he had done the job though. She just had to decide if it was embarrassment over having failed or some other reason that explained why he was lying about the vampire and it's escape. Before she probably wouldn't have thought of this sort of thing, but Spiderwoman had been burned to many times by those that she had trusted not to consider he was up to something.

She did report to Giles though interrupting a date to truck rally of all things. Buffy would have to remember that one as it had some potential teasing materiel to it. If she hadn't been so caught up in her own inner musings about Giles, Miss Calendar, and why Ford had lied about the vampire she wouldn't have been caught off guard as the very vampire that Ford had supposedly killed jumped out of the shelves that Giles was heading towards. The vampire gave a super powered shove knocking the Watcher back. Buffy leaped forward and caught Giles, but his body mass and her bad footing sent the both of them sprawling. Cursing the Slayer climbed to her feet wondering what else could happen that didn't make sense when Giles mentioned that the vampire had stolen one of his books. "Any idea what was inside of the book?" She questioned hum.

"Unknown I'll have to take an inventory to find just what it was that was taken."

"Tell me when you do, guess I need to remind that vampire that their supposed to check the book out before leaving."

"On the bright side, at least you now know that someone is actually reading the books." Jenny noted to the Watcher dryly.

"True," Buffy agreed with the computer teacher while the Watcher spluttered at them indignitaly.

* * *

The next day Buffy was walking back toward school she had a full head of things to consider. Her nightmares were still going full blast, Ford and his lies, Angel and his secrets, the wizards, her mixed feelings for Angel, the fact that Xander, Willow, and Angel had investigated Ford and found his little haven. It was all so confusing, and she wasn't sure just where she should turn. After agreeing to meet with Ford that night and talking to the others she headed to the library where she kept her gear. She nodded to the British trio who could all but feel the simmering anger coming from the Slayer. The girl opened up the chest and found her new outfit. The bright colors of her old outfit just didn't work well with sneaking around, and some serious reworking of the outfit had come up with this outfit. She headed into Giles office and changed clothes and then placed her street clothes back on over them it was time to get to work. She waved goodbye to the other three as she slipped out the way.

"Something's going on," Harry said as he got up to follow after her.

"Harry I don't think she wants help," Hermione warned her friend. "What I picked up off of her told me that this was personal, and she wouldn't want a whole lot of help right now."

"But we're here and we can help." Harry argued with his friend.

"They could help us with the Horcrux's but they aren't demanding that we let them help us either." Hermione told her friend with a glare.

"But…"

"No Harry, they know what they're doing let them do their job they're letting us help with night patrols that should be enough even for you."

"Fine," Harry grumbled as he slumped back into his seat.

Buffy shook her head as she watched Ford enter into his warehouse; she pulled out the binoculars that Xander had insisted that each of them get and examined the building. Basic bad guy set up depending on if they were all human would depend on how difficult this would be. She jumped down from the building that she had been standing on and headed toward the building. She slipped past the doorman, and then took him out with a blow to the head she then followed after Ford. She found a hiding place and removed her street clothes leaving her in her redone costume. A part of her wished that she had a mirror in which to examine herself in, she knew she cut an intimidating figure. Say what you wanted to about the upstart second Spiderwoman, but she did have a good choice in costume colors. Her costume which had once been bright red with a yellow hourglass design on the torso with yellow boots and gloves, was now black the yellow design was still in it. She had considered changing the yellow to red but figured Black Widow might get her for trying to copy her costume so she had left it as it was. She could always change it later if she wanted to as long as it wasn't red. She had a mask done similarly but it wasn't really needed as everyone in this place already knew just who she was.

She sprang up onto the wall and crawled along it entering the room that she had been told about without anyone noticing, and climbed up onto the wall. She saw that there were three apparent leaders of the group. There was Ford, some guy in a really crappy vampire costume with a puffed shirt and sparkly cape, and the blonde groupie that the others had talked to. She found a spot on the wall and listened, as Ford got an update from cape guy, who it seemed was really nothing more than Ford's minion. A part of her couldn't believe that Ford had a minion while the other part of her noted that he was rather good at this for a minor league player.

The girl was whining about Xander and Angel being mean when she figured it was time to announce herself to the slime ball that she had once had feelings for. She wondered if Giles would care too much if she broke a couple of his bones. "It's going to be fine." Ford snapped at groupie girl.

"No, it's really not," Buffy's voice echoed through the room. The three jerked toward the stairs where they expected her to be but found nothing.

"It's getting drafty in here." Ford told cape guy who nodded and walked away from his leader.

"I'm sorry Ford," Buffy mocked from the shadows, "I just couldn't wait till tonight, I'm a bit rash and impulsive like that you know?"

Ford's eyes roamed back and forth as he tried to find the source of Buffy's voice. "We all have flaws," he said as he began wandering around, wondering how the Slayer was performing this trick. Nothing that he had read about her said that she was capable of this.

"I'm still a little fuzzy what yours is." Buffy continued, her voice taking a much harder tone as she addressed her former friend. "It has to do with being a lying scumbag though."

Ford gave an unconscious shrug and a uncaring look above him. "Everybody lies," he returned to her in defiance, trying to remind her of her attempts at hiding being the Slayer.

Buffy shook her head as she listened to him. "What do you want Ford, what's this all about?"

"I really don't think you'd understand." Ford said as he finally came to grips with what was going on and began acting as if he was once more in control.

"I don't need to understand," Buffy returned, "I just need to know what's going on."

"I'm going to be one of them."

"You want to be a vampire?" Buffy asked in confusion. The boy nodded his head in agreement.

"You know vampires are a little picky about who they change over…" Buffy trailed off in realization, "You were going to offer them a trade."

Ford became uncomfortable as he realized that his flawless plan had been figured out. "I don't think I want to talk anymore." He called out into the shadows.

Buffy struck hard and fast she dropped down in front of him and a palm strike sent him slamming into the nearby wall. She eyed the others and saw that they were only watching her fearfully so she turned toward the traitor and stalked toward him. "Yeah? Well I still feel chatty," the girl snarled as she effortlessly lifted the boy up in one hand. "You were going to give them me tonight."

Ford gave her a pained grin as he realized that he had been figured out. "Yes," he gasped.

"How did you know I wouldn't figure it out?"

"Actually I was counting on it." The boy said.

Buffy smirked and dropped him to the ground where he collapsed on the ground. "Another lie Ford? You really need to work on that more."

"What do you mean?" Ford asked as he sucked in air.

"Simple really, if it was a part of your master plan you wouldn't have cared so much about my team finding out about this place, but that was a nice try though." She complimented, Ford glared at her as she casually punched holes in his new plan. "So what's supposed to be happening tonight?"

Ford chuckled as he tried to begin circling her; Buffy merely placed her hand on him forcing him to stay in one place. The boy looked a bit put out but remained where he was. "It's so cool; this is all how it played out in my head, though I have to admit that I hadn't expected you to do the whole hide in the shadows or costume things." The boy said happily.

Buffy barely contained the growl in her throat. "Get to the point Ford, this not a comic book this is real life and I happen to want to stay in it."

"Says you," Ford said with a grin, "you know the part where you asked me what's supposed to be happening, well it's already happening." They all turned as the heavy steel door squeaked shut as cape guy closed it.

Buffy shook her head and leaped into the air and landed on the banister causing cape guy to jump back in fear. Spinning Buffy ran her hand along the shut door.

"Rigged up special, once its closed it can only be opened from the outside." Ford bragged as he leaned on the bottom steps surrounded by his followers of wannabe vampires. "Soon as the sun sets they'll be coming."

Buffy tried to reason with them but they were all convinced that they were going to become greater beings. She couldn't believe in these people she wasn't too afraid, it would take something close to fifty vampires to have a chance of stopping her. She considered all of her options before she decided to make her move. She reached out with her mind and thought. _"Hermione, Hermione are you there?"_ She got no answer though as her ace in the hole seemed to be too busy to respond. _"Psylocke!"_ She mentally screamed out to the British girl.

"_Ow, what was that for?"_ Hermione's voice echoed throughout her head.

_"I'll apologize later,"_ Buffy returned to the psychic mutant, _"right now I need you to get everyone to suit up and get down to the warehouse before sunset. We only have a few minutes before the vampires decided to come here. Ford wants to be changed and decided to trade me and some vampire groupies in for immortality."_

"_So what's the problem?_ The mutant/witch questioned, as she rifled through the other girl's more recent memories, _"that door isn't exactly going to slow you down anymore."_

"_If this is Spike's group, we might not get a better chance at stopping them for a real long time."_ Spiderwoman sent to the other girl in annoyance.

"_Good point luv, take it easy,"_ Psylocke returned to the other girl. _"We were all just waiting for you to start patrol anyways; we'll get there as fast as we can."_

"_Thanks,"_ Buffy said as she turned to talk with the wannabes maybe they could be made to see reason.

* * *

Hermione turned to the group of suited up heroes. "It's time to go people, it seems as though Ford has gone and made his move. He's made a deal, Buffy and the idiotic vampire worshippers for turning him into a vampire."

"Man, he really is dumber than he looks." Xander commented as he and Ron snapped a pair of magazines into their guns.

"Spiderwoman thinks that Ford might have tried contacting Spike for the job."

"Makes sense," Black Widow said as she checked her gear, "Spike's ego is big enough that he would jump at this kind of chance to blow his image up some more. Ford seems to be the kind that likes to play people off of each other, meaning that he would want to get the most popular vampire to do the job."

"Let's go," the Moon Knight said not wanting to leave their friend out on her own.

"Told ya I shoulda gone with her." Wolverine told Psylocke with a grin as he pulled his mask on before heading out, ignoring the two fingered salute that the telepath threw at him as she picked up her katana.

"We'll go there over two different routes," Moon Knight told them. "Wolverine and Psylocke will go through the sewers since they run right alongside of them. He pointed to the path that they would need to take on a map. "Meanwhile the rest of us will take the rooftops." He said motioning towards Black Widow and Punisher.

"Good call," Punisher said except, "I'll be using Miss Calendar's car, that way we'll have the most basic routes that the vampires will take covered." The white clad vigilante nodded in agreement, as they each took off each taking their own route.

Giles and Miss Calendar walked into the library only to be nearly knocked down by the group rushing out. "Let's go Miss Calendar," Punisher growled catching the teacher's wrist as he stalked past the two mentors of the scoobies."

"What?" The computer teacher said, as she was dragged after the armed vigilante.

"I'll explain on the way, for the moment all you need to know is that Buffy needs help to protect people from their own stupidity and since we're in a hurry I'd rather use your car than that trash heap Giles uses and claims is a car."

"Alright," the woman said as she rushed to keep up with the longer legs of the teen.

"It's a classic," Giles grumbled as he followed after them determined to go along if all of the others were going with them. The two listened as the Punisher outlined the situation that they were dealing with, and who they expected was heading towards the warehouse. "I thought Buffy was more than capable of dealing with vampires these days though."

"She is," Punisher and Jenny returned.

"However, Spiderwoman thought that it would be the best chance we would get at getting Spike."

"A most sensible hypothesis," Giles said as they climbed into the car, as they pulled out he looked off to the side and saw shadows of some of the others jumping from roof to roof as they all headed toward the warehouse.

* * *

Buffy continued searching for a way out for the idiots more for show than anything else. The heavy set door was nothing when you combined her Slayer strength with her Spider strength. She was still a far cry from Miss. Marvel still, but she liked to think that she could hold her own against anything in this world that was thrown at her. Who knows, she might even rank somewhere close to some of the more heavy hitters that she had memories of. She stopped and talked with Ford and listened as he told her his sob story about having cancer. Buffy had had enough of this though. "So that's your reasoning then?" She growled at him. "You think that because you're dying it's alright to sacrifice all of us just so you can have a demon take you over?" With a flick of her wrist she had a dagger in her hand pressed against his throat. "Tell me one good reason why I shouldn't just slit your throat for all of this Ford?"

Ford grinned at her. "Simple Buffy, you're the hero," he told her with a smirk.

"I'm not quiet the hero that I used to be." The Slayer told him. "I'm not really seeing the world in black and white so much anymore. The gray parts of it though? Yeah I'm seeing a lot of those these days." Buffy said as she pushed the knife deeper into his throat cutting the skin.

The boy before her looked scared as he realized that he may have pushed her a bit more than he should have. "Because you know that they'll want to talk with me before they get started." Ford tried with her.

"You obviously don't know Spike very well if you think that just because it's you that he'll want to talk." The Slayer returned to the boy. "It's what makes him so dangerous, he's unpredictable. No I think it'll be more fun to watch you try and make sense of everything that's going to happen to you." She said as she roughly jerked the knife away leaving a small gash in his throat. The boy nodded as he tried to stop the blood flow. "Don't worry about that so much, you know that's pretty close to where the vamps have to sink their fangs into you. Consider this as getting a bit of a head start. I really don't want or need to hear anymore of your lines I have a fight to get ready for."

Ford watched her stalk away looking at various places in the room. "You know Summers, I really did miss you." The teen managed to choke out to her back.

"Well next time just send me a postcard Ford, it takes a whole lot less effort and it saves everyone from having to bother with your delusional little games that you love to play on people. A wish you were here, or thinking of you one would have worked just fine." They all stopped as they heard the screech of tires. "Guess it's time for the show."

"That it is Summers."

"Hope you don't expect to get your money's worth," Buffy said as she jumped over the steps and landed in the crowd of now nervous teens.

Ford motioned with his hand and the Slayer rolled her eyes as she caught the crowbar that cape guy tried to use on her. "Really, that's stupid." The Slayer said, as she took the weapon away from him and then bent it out of shape. "Try that again and I won't hesitate to make you eat it. Now stay out of the way and let me save you from your own idiocy. You got me cape guy?" Cape guy nodded at her fearfully as he took several steps away from the angry Slayer. The Slayer was so steamed that she didn't notice Ford throw his own weapon at her and catch her. While she stumbled back Spike stalked through the door in full game face.

Buffy didn't hear him order the attack as she grabbed the tire jack that Ford had picked up to hit her with again. She hit his hand smirking a bit as she heard the bones breaking, not done with him she swiped with her knife cutting him in the stomach. She watched him fall and grab at his stomach, but she was already moving it was time to deal with the vampires. She was pretty sure that her shot hadn't been fatal and if it was she would talk with Giles about it later. She would worry later right now there were lives to save. She ducked though by some unknown prompt and grinned as the ceiling exploded and the Punisher, Moon Knight and Black Widow slid down some ropes, one of the side walls broke free as well as Wolverine and Psylocke broke through from the sewer. "Nice timing guys," she called out, as she pulled one vampire off and tossed him toward Wolverine and Psylocke. Wolverine decapitated him as he walked by while Psylocke swung the other way catching another vampire feeding on one of the idiot brigade.

Spike scowled as he saw that the Slayer and her groupies were destroying his team of vampires. This group had been brought in to deal with the Slayer specifically, not all of these twats at the same time. Making a decision he tossed the bint he had been feeding on, turned and grabbed Drusilla and headed out the door. It was time to leave Sunnyhell it wasn't the vacation spot that he remembered it being. He hissed in pain as a knife lodged itself in his arm had he not turned the blade would have pinned him to the wall for whoever wanted to take him down.

Punisher tossed a pair of gas of gas bombs which began spewing out holy water that was quickly becoming air born. The vampires were doing their best to back away from the fumes that were eating away at their skin but weren't having much luck. Punisher was wielding a pair of wood daggers one was petrified, while the other was made of hard wood. If the petrified wood could kill a vampire then it would be important to know, as they could make some weapons out of the rocklike substance. Moving forward he stabbed the first one in front of him and watched as it crumbled. 'His regular wood dagger was working.' Punisher thought as he ducked an angry swipe by another vampire.

He hacked at the arm of the vampire with the petrified blade and smirked as the blade dug into the vampire's arm. Pulling the dagger out he performed a spin kick catching the vamp in the face then pushed the petrified blade into the chest of the vampire. The vampire roared in pain before it noticed that it was still alive. Grinning savagely the vampire punched the vigilante and sent him flying across the room. Punisher dropped the rock and threw his wooden blade smiling as the blade sunk into the chest of the vamp. The creature glared at him as it turned to dust.

"Scratch one potential weapon." Punisher mumbled as he rejoined the fight.

Black Widow was using a crossbow and taking them down while the Moon Knight had drawn a scimitar out of his enchanted bracelet. The pair worked in tandem, while Moon Knight kept the vampires dodging trying to stay out of reach of the blade Black Widow sent crossbow bolts into them dusting them. The vampires couldn't even attack her though since the assassin wasn't standing still but jumping all over and making impossible seeming shots that were dusting vampires.

As the dust settled the heroes all looked around and saw that they were the only ones left in the bunker everyone else had either run off or been dusted. "Nice entrances," Spiderwoman commented, as she looked at the holes that her friends and allies had broken through.

"Place needed some ventilation," Wolverine stated with a smirk that caused the others to laugh.

"By the way I like the way you changed your costume." Spiderwoman told Psylocke.

The purple haired girl nodded, while the original Psylocke might not mind fighting in a swimsuit it wasn't Hermione's style so she had added a pair of pants that were easy to move in and matched her top. "Did they all get out?" She questioned, referring to the humans that had fled when they had been hit by the cold reality of what vampires really were.

"Looks like all of them but this one did." Black Widow commented from where she was checking the body of someone who had died. They all looked down and saw that Ford was lying there motionlessly. "He bled out from this stomach wound," the redhead noted nodding toward where the boy had been holding his stomach where he had been cut.

"Didn't realize that I had cut him so deeply," the Slayer said as she examined the cut.

"Had to be done darling," Wolverine said, "if ya hadn't done it he would have tried again or done something equally stupid."

"Yeah I know, but it doesn't mean I have to like it anymore though does it?" Spiderwoman shot back at the mutant angrily. "Guess I can look forward to more nightmares."

"Look on the bright side, at least you don't have to worry about him coming back as a vamp." Punisher told her. "This way it's final no worries about him trying to come back unless someone wants a zombie."

"Yeah joy," Spiderwoman said dully, wondering what she was going to do. Just how many would she end up killing and when did she cross the line from hero to monster? She leaned down and let her hand touch the face of her former friend. He had only been trying to stop what was happening to him. She didn't blame him, just the methods that he had chosen to use. With a heavy sigh she pushed his accusing blank eyes shut.

* * *

Buffy leaned against Ford's tombstone wondering if there was anything that she could have done differently for Ford. Sure killing him hadn't been the best of moves but she had done what she was required to do. It was as Wolverine had said if she hadn't done it he would have tried something different until one of them was dead. His desperation fueled by his knowledge of the supernatural world had nearly allowed him to kill not only her but a roomful of innocents. "Does it get any easier?" She questioned the near invisible figure that was hiding in the nearby shadows.

Wolverine looked at her disbelief. "Why are you asking me darling? What makes you think that I know anymore than you do about this kind of thing?"

"Because according to your friends you've been doing the whole hero thing for longer than I have, I've only been doing this for about three years counting my time in L.A. If anyone would know the answer then it would be you, and I was hoping that you could tell me."

Wolverine pulled his mask back slowly and Buffy looked into the grim face of Harry Potter. "There's nothing that I can tell you that you don't already know darling. The feral mutant wizard hybrid stated to the slayer. "Heck I'm still trying to find a lot of the answers to those questions. The truth of the matter is though that all of this? It stinks, it's a crappy life, but we're the ones that seemed to draw the short straw so we're the ones stuck with it. We can rant and rave all we want about the unfairness of it all but we're the ones that do the job in the end. I've seen people that I considered my family be picked off one by one. The more I thought that they would never leave me the more likely it was that they did. I'm just kind of waiting for the rest to fall down and die now." Harry admitted to the one person who was most likely to understand at least a little bit of what he was saying.

"You really suck on these inspirational speeches." Buffy told him wryly.

"Do I look like a flipping guidance counselor to you?" Harry grumbled as he lit a cigar up. "The fact is the pain has only just started for you darling. You've only had to deal with fight or flight for the most part. What are you gonna do when they don't trust in ya anymore, or how about when their jealousy makes them betray ya or simply refuse to believe in ya because they don't want to listen to what your gut instinct is telling ya. I've seen all of this and more happen with Ron, Hermione, and I. Trust me the real pain's only just started. When ya reach the fifth year of doing this you might start understanding just what it is that I'm talking about."

"That's assuming that I live that long," Buffy pointed out to him.

"Good point, trust me I know how that feels," Harry told her, "but there's nothing that I can do about that right now. The three of us used tah do it all together there wasn't a thing in the world that the three of us couldn't handle we truly believed that." Harry shook his head as he remembered how he and his friends used to be. "After fifth year though, we had a hard dose of reality come and kick us in the teeth, and then while we were still down from that one they used and abused us." Harry's eyes darkened as he remembered the past couple of years and everything that they had been forced to go through. "We learned just how lucky we really had been those past four years. I don't think Ron and Hermione ever really got their self confidence back after that mess. As for how do I keep going? That's the easy one Slayer. You and me, we're two of a kind, survivors darling, we have to keep going cause if we stop and think about it all we'd probably go crazy."

Buffy nodded while it wasn't an eloquent speech, but it was what she needed. A basic and simple speech, that told her that she could place one foot in front of the other if she just kept at it. "Can you tell us more about this war of yours tomorrow? I think it's time we really sat down and listened to what it is that you're fighting and see if there is anything about it that we can do to help."

Harry pulled his mask back up as they now returned to business of their wars. "We'll tell ya everything that we can." Wolverine agreed, wondering just what it was that Spiderwoman thought that she and her team believed that they could do that weren't already capable of. The pair of heroes parted each ghosting away into the night as the ultimate predators that they were.

* * *

Willow studied her computer focusing on the various information that was displayed on the screen. Behind her was Hermione willow was currently researching people and names in Australia. She had considered hacking into a spy satellite but figured that would be too dangerous as she didn't want to alert anyone to her presence. A moment later a picture of a happy couple appeared on the screen. "They look happy," the redhead said as she moved away from the screen and Hermione placed her hand near the screen and looked at the couple longingly. Willow shook her head as she saw what the girl had been forced to give up.

"Thank you," Hermione rasped to Willow. The redhead nodded and got up leaving the mutant ninja in the room, knowing that the girl wouldn't allow herself to breakdown if there was someone else in the room.

Hermione stared at the screen wondering when things had gotten so out of control. 'There was more though' she thought as she looked over at a nearby computer screen and looked herself in the face. Was she even the same person? She hardly looked like Hermione Granger daughter of the Granger's or the Wendells as they were now calling themselves. She was half Asian now at least and her once bushy brown hair now fell down in purple rings with just a straightening charm her hair could look normal. Muscles that she had never bothered working on growing up were now rock hard. She didn't know who she was anymore and that scared her more than almost anything else she had always known who she was and where she was going now though she didn't know. Was she Hermione Granger, Betsy Braddock or some weird and unnatural combination of the two? Was she the little bossy know it all that had roamed Hogwarts halls, or was she a model and killer? Was she a witch, or mutant, ninja, a single child, or youngest of three, a Gryffindor or X-Man? The truth was she was no longer sure of any of these things. She cast one more look at the screen wishing that her parents were here now and able to tell her that they loved her still no matter what had happened to her. They weren't though because she had sent them somewhere to be safe she would now have to deal with that and whatever else came her way. Sighing she turned away from the screen she had to worry about Voldemort right now.


	5. Chapter 5

* * *

Yet another chapter hope you like. Don't own any of the characters though i would like to think that his particular merging of the verses is fairly unique.

* * *

The six heroes awoke that day uncomfortably today was the day of the mass funeral for all of those that had died thanks to them and Ethan. It had been nearly a week, but now they were ready to bury the large group of small children that had died during that horror. None of them had gotten much sleep that night as they had been haunted by their nightmares of what they had been forced to do even more so than usual. The story of the tragedy was that some wild animals, fireworks, and the collapse of a warehouse were the official explanation as to why so many of the town's children were now dead. It wouldn't do to actually admit the truth about some of the things that happened in Sunny-Hell after all. It was so much easier to reason away what had really happened than to try and admit that things like magic and vampires truly exsisted. It had been decided by the mourning parents that they could gain strength from each other if they bid the children away as a town. The town was actually declaring this a day of mourning for those innocents that had died in the towns greatest tragedy.

Willow sighed as she put the black pants suit on. This was something that she had recently purchased it was easier to fight in this than it was in a skirt. A part of her wondered how Buffy managed it all the time till she remembered all of the complaints that the Slayer gave them about her ruined clothes. She shuddered at the thought of having to constantly replace clothes as she headed out the door. She entered the church and looked sadly at the row of caskets that were lying at the front of the church with the pulpit standing behind them. This was not what she wanted not this yet here it was. The girl smiled weakly as she saw Xander and Buffy enter the church the bags under the eyes of her friends showed that she was feeling just as bad as they were over having killed so many children. The three friends found places to stand in a corner and stand silent vigil as the preacher began the mass funeral for all of those that had died on Halloween. Nearly everybody in town had shown up for the funeral from distant relatives and close friends to the Mayor. The group noted that Harry, Hermione and Ron had appeared in another corner before the ceremony actually began. The group remained silent all through the mass funeral as the name of each person that had died was mentioned and remembered. At the end of the ceremony each of the teens went and paid their respects to the children. Some of them looked like they were sleeping while others were closed caskets. The closed caskets were the one that Harry stopped before the longest as he silently begged for forgiveness for what he had done to them. The memory of his claws slashing through them haunted him.

The group then followed silently as sobbing family members led the procession outside. The group parted from the main group their guilty hearts not allowing them to stick with the mourners. They were part of the reason that these children were dead they didn't deserve to walk alongside of the mourners. They took to the roofs and followed in that manner. The funeral march had been turned into a parade as there weren't enough hearses in Sunnydale and L.A to hold all of the dead children. Each casket was being carried by people that were heartbroken. The killers watched the streets from above as the line passed by them. Nothing would cause problems for these funerals they would not allow anything to interfere today. Buffy barely restrained herself from killing a couple of demons that were standing on a corner and feeding off the sadness. They had done nothing but come to watch and feed off the emotions something the Slayer couldn't fault them for. They watched the parade as they all headed toward a large memorial like object that would house all of the children that had died that day. In this memorial would each of the children be laid down to rest. The group stood silent vigils as they watched from above as each child was slowly lowered into the ground.

The pain was unbearable for the group who wanted nothing more than a chance to make up for the murders that they had commited. There was nothing that they could do though that would help the children they would have to be buried and forgotten because the world didn't want to believe in what had really happened to the innocent. They all now understood somewhat the pain, self loathing, and guilt that Angel felt whenever he thought of what he had done in the past as Angelus. With his little prank spell Ethan Rayne had condemned and dammed all of them to the night where they felt that they might someday be accepted for their crimes.

Harry nodded to the others as they all sat down in the High school library. The two groups had separated and were now looking each other over. On one end of the table were the Scoobies, on the other end was the Golden Trio. The two trios were staring at each other each of them taking the measure of the other group. "Let's get this started, I want to get this done before Giles gets done with the faculty meeting." Buffy told Harry who nodded in acceptance. "Good, so get with the splainy," the Slayer commanded good naturedly.

"Mione explain everything that it's safe to discuss about the war. Leave out the reason we need to study soul magic though."

"Are you sure Harry?" She asked nervously.

"Yeah, I am."

"Alright," she relented and then turned to the other trio, "are you sure that you that you really want to know about this? I doubt you'll let us oblivate you after we tell you."

"You guys are our friends," Buffy returned, "what's more you're a part of our team that makes your problems our problems." She then turned a dark look at the witch. "And if you ever tried to alter our memories we would hunt you down." She promised leaving it to the other girl to imagine what she would do to her.

"But what about the fact that we need to get back there and the hellmouth needs a guardian?" Ron questioned them. "Do you really think that you just leave this place?"

Xander snorted at the other boy. "Why do you think we've been taking out nest after nest like we have? We're preparing to leave and it will be a while before the vampire population recovers from the numbers we've taken out."

"How long though?" Ron pushed.

"Well, barring any apocalypses, the hellmouth vampires will need nearly a year to gain their strength back to what it used to be. When it was just Buff as the main fighter, we managed to do damage control, with all of us patrolling though we've taken them down to near 30 percent of what their strength used to be at. Even if they turned someone every night and had a large monster migration it will still take time before this place has the strength of what it used to be. Worst case scenario is we leave you guys for a few weeks and clean the town up again and then return to helping you guys. You helped us with our war, now how about you letting us help you with yours?"

"Fine, but don't say that we didn't try to warn you." Hermione grumbled at them. "The war like we told you is a civil war over blood purity. The ones that are from the old magical families are what are referred to as the purebloods. Unfortunately for us they are also the ones in control of the government at the moment. Since they're in charge of everything then it means that it's basically a crime to be a muggleborn or as they prefer to call people with no pureblood status mudblood. They have arranged for anyone of the muggleborn status to be arrested and tried in a kangaroo court where they are accused from farcical crimes like stealing the magic of purebloods and taking it for ourselves."

"How would you magically steal something if you didn't already know and have magic though?" Willow questioned them in confusion. "I mean I suppose that if you were to use certain types of demons that might be possible, but you'd have to catch them when they wandered through this reality though instead of summoning it, if you have no magic."

"Exactly," Hermione agreed, "this is the kind of insanity that is running through the bloody British magical world right now.

"Focus on the war, not on the stupidity of the various people and their stances Mione." Harry told his friend with an eye roll.

Hermione sniffed at her friend in annoyance "Honestly Harry, the wizarding world's insanity is what makes it so dangerous, because they never use any sort of rational thinking and use whatever excuse they think sounds the nicest and go with that. The fact that their answers are never researched is also a fact that they conveniently ignore all the time."

"I know Hermione, but getting you're panties all twisted up about it isn't going to help any of us right now." Harry reminded her' he sometimes wished his friend didn't get so caught up in the details. True that way of thinking had saved his life more times than he could count so he supposed that he should be thankful. Still it meant that she got sidetracked sometimes, although he was glad to see that little quirk of hers was still there and had not been lost to the possessions.

Hermione scowled at him, but nodded her head in agreement before continuing. "Anyone that is not in agreement is either killed or imprisoned in the wizarding prison. The place isn't as bad as it used to be because of the dementors having left the place. Of course those things are now breeding like crazy."

"And what are Dementoids?" Buffy questioned them.

"Creatures that suck all of your happy emotions away and force you to relive all of the worst ones," Harry replied, "don't really fancy meeting another one anytime soon when you consider all of the bad partial memories that I now have." At this they all shivered as the mere fact that having the memories of the ones they did meant that they could be overwhelmed with memories that weren't theirs. Each of the heroes had in some way gone through torture in multiple forms and having to relieve that terror was not something that they would look forward to.

"The leader of the group is someone by the name of Tom Riddle, AKA Lord Voldemort. He's a wizard that had a lot of magical power and has everyone afraid to say his name and even more afraid to face him. His personal soldiers are known as Death Eaters and rate all over the scale from petty thieves to insane mass murderers. The blood purity level has to be at least the primary requirement for joining the group whether or not you're being forced to join or not is just a little side matter."

"What are the requirements for joining this group of dark wizards? Do you like have to perform a certain task to become initiated into the group?" Xander questioned as he tried to learn all that he could about the crimes of his new targets. "Some gangs have to prove their worth before they can be officially allowed into the gang. You know killing, stealing, performing an act of loyalty of some type."

"Other than having at least one pureblood parent I'm not all that sure, and if you are a half-blood you have to do your absolute best on hiding that little fact or it could mean some serious problems."

"Yeah, there's nothing like killing or anything to receive your dark mark. If that was the case I doubt that Malfoy would have been so hesitant to kill Dumbledore that night if there had been some sort of initiation ritual that had forced him to kill before that." Harry noted to the others. "As it was he couldn't do the job even with a bunch of Death Eaters encouraging him on."

"Maybe, it could also be that if he did kill someone before it was a long range shot or perhaps from behind," Ron theorized to the others, "it's different killing from a distance and killing someone that you know when you're looking at them in the eyes while they're defenseless against you."

"Slow down folks, what's a dark mark, and who's Malfoy?" Buffy interrupted the group.

"Sorry. The Dark Mark is a tattoo with a snake coming out of a skull that all of Voldemort's Death Eater followers have on their arm. It's also the symbol that Voldemort uses to announce his presence or that this was his people's handiwork." Hermione explained, she waved her wand and a green mist appeared in the air above them showing the snake and skull symbol.

"Almost reminds me of the Hydra symbol," Willow observed as she looked at the glowing skull causing snorts all around. "Now about this Malfoy person, who is he?" Willow continued.

"Draco Malfoy, son of Lucius Malfoy, they're one of the old pureblood families that have joined with Voldemort, however due to what has happened recently I think that they may be in his bad books and have problems of their own for all of their screw ups."

"Why, what happened?" Buffy questioned hoping that this might be the chink in the armor that they needed.

Lucius failed to retrieve a prophecy and got a majority of his attack force arrested, in this same attack he forced Voldemort to show himself, and Draco failed to kill Albus Dumbledore the one person that Voldemort ever really feared."

"Yeah, and Voldemort isn't exactly big on forgiving others when they screw something up." Ron told the Scoobies. "He'd much rather torture them for doing it wrong."

"Great another megalomaniac that gets off on other peoples pain." Xander said sarcastically.

"Is this Dumbledore person still around? Someone like that might prove useful to have on our side." Willow commented.

"No he's not, a traitor managed to kill him once he had been cornered by a group of Death Eaters." Harry told them coldly a set of claws popped out as his anger got the better of him.

"I take it you have a history?"

"Yeah you could say that bub," Harry growled in frustration, "I knew he was up to no good but I didn't have the proof that was needed and Dumbledore died because I couldn't find what was needed for us to prove what was going on."

"None of us was at our best that year mate," Ron told his friend with a grimace. "So, you guys still interested in helping us? This isn't a war where the bad guys are as easy to figure out as it is over here. None of us would blame ya if you wanted to stick to this war and maybe just start absorbing L.A into your operation. You could completely cut them off from this hellmouth if you were to work on it." He said hopefully.

"Trust us we considered it, but we do have to worry about what would happen if you're crazy snake guy decides to begin branching out and starts working with demons. Cause then he would definitely become our kind of problem."

"Good point, Hermione conceded, he already has the giants and werewolves on his side it probably wouldn't be much longer before others were brought in as well. I can just imagine the kind of troubles that he would cause if he managed to contact a dangerous group of vampires."

"From the way you describe him it would only be a matter of time before he got them on his side." Willow told the other girl.

"Yeah he is a good talker he'd find something that they wanted and do his best to appear that he was trying to get it unless it really was easy to get it and after he got the vampires on his side you can just bet that he would manage to get some of the demons on his side after that." Ron complained.

"What else can you tell us about him?"

Hermione looked over at Harry who nodded in agreement. "Well let's see, he's the direct descendent of one of the most famous magic users in Europe. He was a neglected boy at an orphanage, he was Head Boy at one of the most prestigious magical schools in Europe that his ancestor helped to create. His first documented magical kills were probably done at 17 when he killed his birth father, and his family, Moaning Myrtle was probably more likely to be his first human kill though."

"Who?"

"A ghost that we know of, she's probably still pretty mad at me for hurting Malfoy like I did though. If I knew what I did now though I would have put more juice into the spell or aimed it at his throat." Harry grumbled.

"Nah should have just found something to cut his pretty face up with." Ron returned, "something that would have been permanent." He added in as an afterthought.

"Okay." Willow said wondering why they disliked this Malfoy person so much.

"You couldn't have done it back then Harry," Hermione admonished her friend leaving it unsaid that he could now do the job. "Let's see, he graduated the school and then he wandered around for a while and killed people almost nonstop, he was stopped by an unknown means until he found a way to resurrect himself to his current strength. He is considered so powerful that some people are afraid to even say his name."

"So we got super wizard that everybody is afraid of then." Buffy said as she tried to think of a way to hurt this potential threat. It didn't sound as if physical attacks would hurt the wizard all that much.

"To be honest we're not ready to fight him," Harry admitted, "

until we finish what we're doing there's no way that we can fight him and win. He's more likely to kill us if we do anything."

"Alright so you can't attack him directly, what about his people can you do that?" Xander questioned with a predatory gleam in his eyes as he began thinking of potential targets. "You say that he controls the government right? So how about you start taking out the ones there that are supportive of him? If he can't protect them then it shows others just how weak his government really is."

"Make him seem weak?" Harry questioned looking to Hermione for support on this plan.

"It would keep him busy if we were to have us being a thorn in side," Ron told his friend, "also it would be nice if when we finally did face him he didn't have so many troops to throw at us. Fact is most people will be too scared to face him. If we weaken his numbers though they might take a chance here and there and actually fight back."

"You're right on that one, there's also the fact that he's not going to fight fair which means that he's not going to have a proper fight. In other words he's not going fight you till the end after you've had to go through each and every one of his troop. After all of them are dead when you are worn out only then will he come along and blast you while you are too tired to move." Xander pointed out to the other teen. "You may be the Wolverine, but even you have limits to how much damage you can take before you drop. If we do it this way we can take out his people before he can use them against us. When the final battle does come he won't have soldiers to just throw at us. Besides you're a soldier now that means that you need to start fighting smart."

"They're right," Ron agreed, "just think of it as another way of weakening him before we take him down. Same as with what we're doing with the, you-know-what's."

Harry sighed, he then looked up at the group. "You're going to follow us with or without our agreeing aren't you?"

"Yep," Buffy confirmed, "think of it this way, if we all go together there won't be the annoyance of us trailing you all the time."

"And how do you plan on getting out of going to school?"

"That's easy, there's a G.E.D testing in a couple days in L.A. We take the tests and graduate early and then go with you." Willow returned to Harry. I can hack into the system and add our names to the list of people that are going to take it."

"Besides a lot of the stuff is a little too easy for us, the only thing we really have to review is History since we don't want to tip anyone off that we're really someone else." Xander reminded them.

"Sound reasoning," Ron said to them, I could probably get you the required papers in a few hours though if you'd rather do it that way. You could always come and take the test after the war." He added hastily, as he seemed to feel Hermione's death glare aimed at him.

Harry shot Ron a dirty look before he turned back toward the other trio. "What about the Giles and the Watcher's Council? He tried you think that they're going to be very happy about this?" This was the last excuse that he could think of to get them to stay here.

"You leave Giles and the Watchers to us." Buffy told him with a smirk.

"Yeah we think we know of a few ways to get him to agree with what we have planned." Willow confirmed to the other group. "I have a few ideas on how we can best do that. If you were to help Hermione it would make this go a lot easier, as it would allow us to get away with why we're going to be gone to the handful of other adults that might notice that we're gone. It might help if we convinced them to not worry."

Hermione nodded, she didn't agree with the messing of someone's memories. She had it before to keep her parents safe though and she would do it again to help out all of the other people that she needed to so that they could win this war. Hopefully they weren't going to ask her to wipe the memories of anyone here, she really disliked doing that. She knew Psylocke didn't mind it as much, she was still uncomfortable with it just not like she used to be. A part of her was pleased at this obvious difference in her attitude as opposed to Psylocke's. It showed that it was still her underneath all of her changes.

"What do you need me to do?" She questioned the redheaded super spy.

"Actually, you'll be coming with me," Buffy told the purple haired girl, "my mom is probably the only one that you really have to worry about."

"Don't ask Mione," Harry told his friend seeing the questions that the other girl wanted to ask about this. Harry knew exactly what it was that was meant by those comments and really didn't want to explain it to his friend who couldn't understand even if she read their memories. It was one thing to hear, know or see abusive or neglectful families it was a whole other thing when you had to live with it. Xander and Willow gave grateful nods to Harry as he turned the ninja's attention away from their home lives.

"Moon Knight, come on we have a bunch of paper trails we need to create, we also need to go over all of our gear and see if we can't get some more guns and computer gear. Giles may not want to get involved in that part of what we do, but we do need to get it done." Xander told the redheaded vigilante, nodding the other boy followed Xander out. The two were making suggestions as they walked on what guns would be the most effective to use in the coming war.

* * *

That night Giles and Jenny found all of them sitting in their chairs or hiding in the shadows waiting for Giles to show up. Even Angel had shown up for what appeared to be a meeting, as he was leaning in the shadows just barely visible. He and Buffy were having a conversation about something or other the Watcher ignored that and focused on why they were all here and not out on patrol like they should be. "Has something unusual happened?" He asked afraid that another Apocalypse had been discovered and they would be forced to test the limits of the teens new abilities long before he had hoped that they would have to.

"You could say that," Buffy returned to the Watcher, "we need to talk Giles."

"Very well what is it?"

"We've decided that if we're going to keep risking our lives like we have then we're going to need to start getting paid. The Slayer bluntly explained to the Watcher. "The Council also needs to start paying for our operating expenses as well. We can't be expected to be lucky enough for rich demons and vampires to keep coming to town if we keep destroying them. Between all of us we've managed to make Sunnydale at least habitable and the streets are safe enough that you can make a quick trip to the store and not have to worry too much about the various vampires, demons, and whatever's that hang around this town turning you into a snack."

"Yeah, and since we've done that it's pretty obvious that the town doesn't really need us anymore." Xander pointed out to the Watcher. "In fact, you could almost say that we've gone and done our job a little too well. We've pretty much dealt with anything and everything that could be a true threat that we can find. I'm sure there are a few creeps hiding in the woodwork but they're either really weak or really powerful and there's nothing that we're going to be able to do to find them at this point in time if they don't want to be found."

"Right, in other words we want to know what the Council is willing to pay us for staying here and continuing keeping the town safe. Otherwise I figure we can join up with the others and help them with their war." Buffy informed the Watcher. "As bad as it sounds they could probably use all of the help that we can send them. The fact that we now have people that have experience in hot warfare and cold warfare means we know how to do this sort of stuff. With the skills we now have we can save a lot of lives that we couldn't have before hand."

"You expect the Council to pay you to do your duty?" Giles spluttered at the Slayer in shock wondering just what it was that the Slayer was thinking when she was asking this. "Yours is a duty to the world Buffy, he admonished, "you were chosen above all others and you want to put a price tag on your duty to the world?"

"Sorry Giles, while none of us, or our other selves are mercenaries. You know as well as we do that the Council could afford to pay us for our work out here." Buffy said to her Watcher meeting his glare head on letting him know that she was being completely serious about what she was saying to him. "They could also afford to pay for our equipment, yet more and more we're having to do that ourselves. I mean do you remember the gear you came here with? You had that entire weapons cage filled with Council provided gear, now it's only got weapons that we've made or scrounged up from bad guys we've killed."

Harry and Ron smirked wondering if the Slayer remembered that Moon Knight actually used to be a mercenary before he put on a costume and as Wolverine he had pretty much tried his hand at every type of job that required using fighting. Then again it could be that the Slayer was simply glossing over the truth and not saying anything about them and only including her and her two friends. Black Widow was a spy Punisher was a former soldier and cop and Spiderwoman was another former spy. They may have posed or acted as mercenaries but they hadn't actually ever been in the field. She was more slippery with her words than the twins were it seemed.

"True." Giles grudgingly admitted, unaware of what she had omitted from him. "But that is by no means a reason for you to abandon your duty and post here and go searching for troubles elsewhere when you have plenty of things to do here. I mean sure the problems in the wizard world are bad, but it would actually be better if you lot were to stay here." The Watcher protested weakly. "What about Spike? You haven't managed to take him down yet. Do you think he will wait for you to come back before he starts killing again?" Giles countered to the young man smug that he had figured something to keep them here. If he knew them as well as he thought that he did, he couldn't imagine any of them wanting to leave the peroxide colored vampire in the town if for no other reason than their pride in being able to take down any vampire they went up against.

"Actually he took his car Drusilla and a couple of his other remaining minion survivors and made a run for it last night after we took them down at Ford's warehouse." Hermione told the watcher as she looked up from where she was sharpening her katana"

Giles scowled at the mutant witch as his best argument was destroyed. "Well that may be, but you can't leave the town defenseless. You should all know how often that new talent seems to come here. Why the attraction that the town has to the supernatural. In fact you should be ashamed of yourselves for even considering it." He tried guilting them since Spike was gone.

"Yeah Giles, we know all about how the hellmouth attracts people and things who think that they're all that and love to cause lots of death and violence." Xander interrupted the man.

"Exactly, this is precisely why the three of you shouldn't leave." Giles said to the three Americans hoping that they would see reason. A slayer that abandoned their post would most likely be tracked down by a Council cleaner team and be dealt with for their actions. With a crime like desertion there was only one punishment that they would perform to a Rogue Slayer.

"Oh come on Giles, they need our help." Xander said looking up from where he was cleaning a pair of rifles with ease and even kept his hand near a magnum pistol while he worked. "Besides all of those wannabe nazi killers are just casually waltzing around Britain as if they own the place while the good and honest people are forced to hide in fear unsure whether or not they'll survive a trip to pick up some food. We got to help these guys they need our help. Besides do you really think that this dark idiot really knows how to wage war? From what we can understand it'll be like shooting fish in a barrel." Xander stated with a predatory smile. "We'll show them what it means to have real fear."

"So, shall I just inform the Council that you're making your way toward England then?" Giles asked in annoyance angry that these new personalities had somehow actually made the three scoobies even more stubborn than they were before somehow. It also angered him at how cocky that they were being vampire packs and the occasional demon they might be more than a match for but there was without a doubt things out there that were more than a match for them.

"It's either that, or come with us bub." Harry said from where he was leaning against the wall casually waiting for all of them to decide on just what they were going .to do

Giles sighed, angrily and turned to Jenny hoping that she could convince the group if the need to stay in the town. "Hey don't look at me," the woman said raising her hands as if to ward him off of her, "this is your thing I'm just the occasional help not the one that they answer to."

"Yes, it's awfully convenient that you suddenly have no opinion on something like this." Giles snarked at the woman.

"Oh come on Rupert, you know that it's half the fun." Jenny teased the Watcher. "Besides, this way I can't get in any trouble one way or the other." She told him smugly, earning a groan of frustration from the Watcher.

Giles grumbled under his breath before finally nodding, hoping that he would be there when things finally went south for all of them. "Very well, I just know that I'm going to regret this though." He told them all. "It will be quiet enjoyable to stick it to that brainless, self important, overblown, buffoon of troll though." He told them all with a satisfied smirk. There was something good in this he thought.

"Come on Giles let it all out," Xander told him with a grin, "it's bad for your health to keep all of that pent up aggression in you."

"Good, glad that you finally managed to convince him." Ron said ignoring Xander's teasing as he tossed a wallet full of false Identification and paperwork to the older man. "You might need these later on so keep them nearby. We'll help you pack everything up with our help all of your books and weapons will be able to be packed in only a couple of crates."

"Yes, that will make things easier if that is all that I have to deal with." Giles agreed with the redheaded male. He then turned to look at his three charges. "And how do you three intend to explain your leaving the country?" He questioned them. "Particularly with your parents? Not to mention how you plan on explaining leaving schoo without anyone noticing?"

"My parents are kind of not caring so long as I don't bother them." Xander said shrugging.

"Yeah, and I made up a fake boarding school and all that with you as my chaperone." Willow added in.

"And as for Joyce?" He questioned all three of them since he knew that the older woman had a special place in all of their hearts. "I highly doubt that either of those methods would actually work very with her."

"Psylocke helped us out." The three said nodding to the British/Asian girl who was sitting in a meditative stance.

"Well that deals with your parents, but how do you intend to get away from the Authorities that will insist on the three of you attending school." Giles questioned them smugly as he figured he had now won.

"That's easy Giles," Buffy said smirking right back at her mentor.

"Oh really, and how do you plan on getting around it then? I seriously doubt that Joyce will be very understanding when she finally comes to her senses."

"Well, since we'll be taking our G.E.D tests in a few days and graduating early I doubt that she'll be able to get to mad at me for this. I can always tell her that we thought a European tour was the best thing to do before we started on worrying about something like college."

The Watcher nodded impressed with the plan despite himself. There were many people that went on those types of trips after graduating. "Very well," Giles said in defeat, "I am sure that I just don't want to know how it is that she managed that one. How do you plan to pay for the various pieces of equipment that you are going to need though?"

Willow looked from her computer. The girl had changed from a plain and simple insecure girl to a person with a deadly glare and body that now made Cordelia Chase envious. "I've managed to hack into a number of criminal organizations and reroute large portions of their money into multiple accounts that we can then access whenever we have need of it."

"Really, what kind of organizations?" Buffy asked curiously.

"Um let's see, some of the main amounts are from the Italian and Russian mafias, the Chinese Tong, and the Japanese Yakuza."

"Willow are you completely mad?" Giles asked her exasperated. "By doing that, you are likely to have several criminal elements after us now for stealing from them."

"And the bad side of that would be what?" Ron asked him with a sly grin. "Like they could actually do something to us that would stop us."

"Good point." Xander said. "And if they do come for us then we'll be able to do some of our other work. It also saves the time of ever having to worry about looking for these guys. They'll come to us instead of having us go looking for them." Xander said with a light in his eyes that made the Watcher nervous.

Giles sighed at the group. "I think that I am going to have even more gray hairs by the time this is all over."

"Aw don't be like that Giles." Willow said with a grin. "Besides, you never know what it is that we may or may not manage."

"That is exactly what I am afraid of." Giles told her honestly, this caused all of the others to grin like the predators that they had become. Giles shivered slightly as he realized that this group was no longer the fighters of black and white that he had known them to be. It was the eyes that told him all that he needed to know, they were the dark and hard eyes of hunters, killers, and soldiers not champions. He didn't know what to call them anymore and he was afraid he wouldn't like the answer that he got if he did. Perhaps he should just leave it at heroes or soldiers and go on with things.

* * *

The Mayor frowned as he looked over the most recent numbers of his town. Ever since Halloween the yearly numbers had been off from what they normally were. It was all that Chaos Mage Rayne's fault that things were becoming so difficult to manage in his town. That was probably the last time he allowed a magic user to run amok and perform heavy magic's like that. He had thought that the man would be able to keep the Slayer distracted and had allowed him to perform his spell. It was true that she had been too busy to notice some of the things that he had done that night. He had managed to have his people move through several houses that had people that had been causing him problems in the last few years. Their deaths had been blamed to the madness of Halloween and not even the Slayer had bothered to look very closely into the deaths of the people he had killed. For all she knew she had killed those people. He knew for a fact Rayne was still hiding out nearby with that demon that he and the Watcher had summoned when they were younger. It had been a great cover to tie up several loose ends but the price of it was not worth it as he now had the Slayer and her people with the proper mindset and skills to wage a war. The careful balance that had been in his town for the past hundred years was being destroyed thanks to the costumes that they had chosen. They were dangerous now and if he wasn't careful they would become aware of him and what he did. He had seen them all for the first time at the funeral and had to admit that they cut some imposing figures in real life that their files hadn't managed to show other people.

He was impressed with the group despite himself, they had managed to perform a lot in the short time that they had been changed. The entire group was a bunch of go getters when it came to their duties of protecting the town. If it wasn't for the fact that they were affecting the way that the town was running he would be offering each of them a position, and if it would help he still might offer them jobs. He would just have to find out what their prices were. Demons and Vampires were learning what it meant to fear the Slayer. She no longer patrolled she and her band hunted that was a difference that he could easily see and he wondered how long this change would last. Without the Supernatural to stuff the ballot boxes for him, he wouldn't have an easy win anymore. He really needed to figure a way to deal with the group and soon with his Ascension coming up at the end of next year he couldn't afford to have anything go wrong. He couldn't contract Wolfram and Hart for this one either as he doubted that they would really allow him to succeed in what he was doing. They were in the middle of plans of their own to do things, and he doubted that they would be very pleased with him if he destroyed Sunnydale and then LA. No the farther that he allowed that group of bottom feeding sharks were the better off he would be.

He wondered how much longer he would have to deal with the heroes though. His people were looking through his own texts and records to find information on this Riddle fella and the types of things that could destroy soul magic. If the Slayer and her numbers were halved then he might be able to begin a rebuilding period. Of course there were other options, as it seemed the Slayer and her team were going to follow the wizards on their little quest. If that happened it would be a time to restructure everything in the rebuilding phase. Having had the Library bugged surveillance equipment had been his best move as he could now listen in on whatever it was that was going on and know what they were planning. The listening devices never lasted very long because of the supernatural interference. The survivors of the Slayer's rampage would make good leaders for the restructured towns, even so it would take time to fix everything that had been lost. Of course that plan only worked if the Slayer and her team left. He hoped that the group wasn't going to be this much trouble when it came time for the Ascension. It would be such a bother, still he supposed that he should schedule for their interference. He should also prepare for them and have something that would keep them busy should they ever get past his people. He would need to check with the likes of Rack he might have need of his abilities at hiding for some of his followers.

"Mr. Mayor, you have a call from records," a voice called out to him over his speaker phone.

"Go ahead and put it through Mary," the mayor said as he picked up his phone. "Hello, Alan did you find anything?" He questioned the other person on the phone.

"Yes sir Mr. Mayor," a voice replied, "I have the records for a Mr. Riddle right here. It seems that he was a wand using wizard that was trying to learn everything that he could about Immortality and rituals that would increase his power he seemed to favor serpent style rituals in particular."

"Uh huh, that's good to know Alan. See to it that the file gets out onto the street, there are some people looking for that information and the sooner they get out of my town the better. It's almost tourist season for some of the demon clans that like to pass through here and I don't need the bad business of them all being killed. We do have a reputation to keep." The mayor reminded the man.

"Yes sir, it'll find its way out onto the streets tonight." The person in the records department promised.

"Good work Alan, keep this up and I may just have a bonus for you." The Mayor promised as he began going over plans on what he would have to do for a rebuilding once the Slayer and her people were gone. If they left it would be a real good time to get a head start on some of his sacrifices during the quite time.

The Wolverine stalked into Willy's grunting at a few demons grinning at the twitchy looks that they were sporting as he turned to them. The trio and the Scoobies now all had the reputations of being people that one didn't cross if you didn't want to find yourself becoming a smear on a wall or dust in the wind. You tried not to anger the members of either group and did your best to stay out of their deadly reach. "Willy," Wolverine grunted in greeting, "someone told me that you had something that might interest me."

"That I do," the weasel of a man said as he laid a filthy dishrag on the counter. "If you'll take your booth seat I'll come by and get your order in just a moment." Wolverine shuffled over to the booth and waited for the bartender.

* * *

Wolverine walked out of the bar a few minutes later with a folder that told all about what Voldemort had done while in Sunnydale. This was exactly what he had wanted to know and one of the reasons that he had been beating up various beings throughout Sunnydale. The only bad thing about this file was that according to this while Voldemort had learned a lot about ritualistic style magic's. He had never made any waves while on the hell mouth, if anything Voldemort had been on his absolute best behavior while he had been in Sunnydale. Something or someone had obviously scared him into behaving, it was doubtful that anyone was really capable of that now, still it was interesting information to know. That or he was so busy kissing ass that he hadn't had the time to try and go on one of his killing rampages. This thing detailed his trip here and the fact that he had never returned after he had learned everything that he thought that he needed from various wiccans and demons. With this information it proved one thing though. Voldemort had not created a Horcrux while he was here nor had he returned here to store one either. That meant that this entire trip here had been nothing but a giant waste of time as far as the hunt went.

The only good things about coming here seemed to be knowing that they could scratch this town and all of its history from their hunt. They could now focus on Europe, and places there where he might have killed someone and where he might have stored his soul fragments. The only good thing that came from this whole thing was meeting the Slayer and her team and some of the benefits that the costumes had given them. Not all of the benefits were ones that he wanted though.

"Well?" The Slayer asked as she heard Wolverine slip up behind her.

"I got all of the information we needed." Wolverine told her. "We just need to let you and your team test tomorrow and then we can leave."

"Yeah, the only thing we have to decide is how we're going." The Slayer said to him. "If we go by boat we can move the weapons and gear more easily than by plane but it'll take longer to travel by boat. Angel would also be more comfortable going by boat as he would be able to hide in the cargo hold without any trouble and he doesn't trust Xander to not try and transport him in a giant coffin."

"Smart vampire." Wolverine noted, when Xander Harris was in rare form he was as bad as the Weasely twins at times. "Of course if we went by plane we would get there faster and have a better chance of getting this mess done with already."

"True, but I don't think we're going to have a lot of choice in the matter we're going to have to take the boat option. The only reason I can think to take a plane would be to have someone arrange things for us before hand so that we can leave quickly."

"Seems like a decent plan," Wolverine muttered, "we ought to get going though we have a lot of things to do."

"Right," the two stood up and began making a sweep of the town they would head back for a quick report and then begin going over what of their gear they could need.

* * *

The three scoobies were waiting outside of Snyder's office. The group waved to Giles as he walked out a smug grin on his face the Watcher had let loose on the man as he quit calling him all sorts of things that he thought he was comparable to. The group waited a few minutes, and even watched as a couple of other teachers were allowed to go ahead of them. Those teachers beat hasty retreats the man obviously taking his anger out on them at being called for every little thing that Giles had called him on for the past year and a half. The bell rung and people began moving around going from one class to the other. The group was different than normal as each of them was dressed in expensive clothes that would make even the Chase family stop in shock at the price tags. The group now exuded a power and money image that no one else in the school could match. Buffy finally got up and led her friends to Snyder's office with a grin Buffy kicked the door in. Everyone paused as they saw Buffy casually break the door and let herself into the Principles' office. "We need to talk," the Slayer informed the balding troll-man.

"Summers, what the hell are you doing?" Snyder screeched at the teen that had so casually destroyed his door. I'll see you expelled for this there's no way that you can get away with this one." He practically crowed already reaching for the forms that would expel her.

"Shut up and listen you rat nosed, Hitler wannabe ass." The raven haired Slayer said as she shoved the desk and pinned the man against the wall. "I'm going to make this a good day for both of us. My friends and me are officially leaving this dump. We went and got our G.E.D's, so we no longer have to bother with the bothersome little things like hanging around your cesspool installation. This means that as of now you have no power over us and if you ever see us again you should be very afraid. And since we all know Willow aced that test and blew all of the numbers out of the water this place doesn't get the credit when test results come back." The Slayer said cutting loose with her inner Slayer which made the man quake in fear at the menace before that he now no longer had any power over. The loss of Rosenburg would also hurt him more than he wanted to admit as well. Her high scores would have averaged out some of the other students results. "Now then, you're going to sign these papers that say we no longer go to school here and you're going to do so quietly and efficiently. Do we understand each other?" The man nodded as Willow stepped forward and handed him a file with the required papers that they needed signed. A couple of times he opened his mouth to say something but a glare from Buffy silenced him.

"We done Will's?"

"Yeah we're done, come on we have to go we have other things to do." The red head then turned to the principle. "Oh yeah a news flash, since we now have money more than even the town treasury we'll never have to see you again unless you try and get in our way."

Snyder looked up at that and finally noticed the expensive clothing that they were all wearing. His greedy eyes drank in everything about them, plans already forming his head on how to pump money out of them. The various other rich and powerful children that went to school here all paid him to leave them alone with as much trouble as this group caused he could become very rich off of them. He was almost salivating at the thought when his eyes looked back at his desk and he saw the forms he had just signed.

"That's right Snyder," Willow cooed at the man as horror crossed his face, "we're beyond you and your reach." The trio laughed at this as they sauntered out of the office leaving Snyder to watch them his dreams of pocketing their money leaving with them. A lot of cash and a good review had all just passed him with the loss of those three.

The group walked toward the doors and saw that Cordy, the Cordettes and their current boyfriend's were blocking the entrance. The group was looking at them with sneers on their faces as the rich children of Sunnydale they obviously thought that they could judge the three. "You three may have money now, but you're all still nothing but trash." Queen C told them snottily thrusting her chest out at them. "You losers are still the dweebs you were yesterday."

"Oh shut up," Xander interrupted before she could get going. While the leader of the group stared in shock at being so casually interrupted he strode forward grabbed her in his arms he then forced one hand behind her neck and the other grabbed her butt and kissed her full on the lips.

Cordellia froze in shock and disgust before she closed her eyes leaned fully into the kiss. Harris may be a dweeb she thought but he was a great kisser.

Xander then broke the kiss leaving an unsteady panting Cordy with lust filled eyes. "Not bad but I've definitely had better." The boy said loud enough so that everyone could hear him. "I suppose that your daddy's money and your lack of underwear is what really keep's your boyfriends around." Xander remarked before swatting her on the butt causing her to step to the side, he then walked over the downed football team that Buffy and Willow had stopped from interrupting the kiss.

Cordy snapped out of the spell she was under and looked at the group. "Hey Harris, come back here and…" His words and the bodies around her penetrated her lust filled mind and she realized what he said and that she was being dismissed as not worth the effort. She stood at the top of the door in shock and disbelief as the three teens joined another group of three. All of them were laughing and joking as they pulled out in a fancy hummer. She turned to look back at the school and saw that people were now openly laughing at her and her followers. In one minute Harris and his friends had humiliated, and downgraded her to nothing and then casually left. She had lost nearly all of her social power to them.

* * *

The group of teens stopped off at Buffy's place and waited as the Slayer told her mother goodbye. They all felt guilty about tricking and lying to Mrs. Summers but it had to be done for her own safety. After a send off meal that all six teens had gorged themselves on they had to leave. As night fell the seven of them headed to Angel's apartment, the vampire joined the group in the back and they set off. They had to get to New York, and from there they had to find a boat that would be stopping off in England, and after that they would have to see what was happening in the war. Giles would fly ahead of them while the rest of them slipped back into the country on the boat. The younger group would leave a day before but it would still give Giles enough time to arrange things as he needed to.

The Watcher sighed as he looked at the list of things that they had given him to work on. Weapons, basic supplies, transportation, preferably motorcycles and delivery vans as they would provide greater mobility and storage, a warehouse to work from, information on what was going on in the supernatural world, and that was just before they got here. When the group got here there was no telling what they would request of him to find or retrieve. The task was a bit more difficult as he had to perform all of this without the Watcher's Council being aware as the group felt that they didn't need to advertise the wizarding world too much. This meant that the side of London and the supernatural that he had stayed away from for years was about to have a flashback as Rupert Giles A.K.A Ripper. The man headed into the night he had things to do. He almost wished he was young again it would make some of the things that he was about to do easier. Still he might be older and in some ways more refined but as Ethan had said he knew who he really, and was what he was capable of. He hated to think that he hadn't grown beyond being that person, but perhaps Ripper and Giles were somewhat connected. Well perhaps he should find out for himself who he was.

* * *

So can we bump the number of reviews up now please.


	6. Chapter 6

Another chapter huzzah huzzah

* * *

The group of heroes strolled through Diagon Alley cautiously, they knew the dangers that the alley contained but they needed to get some more up to date information on what was going on. In war information was just as important if not more so than a good gun was. The group had entered the alley one at a time and slid past Ministry officials and Aurors easily. The physical changes in the three Gryffindors were enough to make people dismiss them as who they really were, anyone that did pay too much attention to them were distracted by Psylocke's abilities. Each of them had dressed in cloaks to go over their transfigured robes as they wandered around. Ron and Harry slowly but surely made their way toward the twins shop while the other four each found a spot on the street to take up guard positions.

The two boys entered the shop and frowned as they looked around. A year ago this place had been so much livelier with children wandering around and the hustle and bustle of people as they bought a variety of items. Now the place was so much more subdued and the noise of various toys and pranks going off was gone. The two boys scanned the room and noticed two wizards that were merely wandering around but were also noting everyone that went through the front and back doors. The pair were obviously here to watch the twins and to find out who was dealing with the twins. The pair headed towards Lee Jordan who was in charge up front and asked to see some of their shield cloaks. Harry placed a couple of galleons on the counter saying they were needed badly. The dark skinned boy nodded as he palmed the coins and motioned for a girl to escort the pair to the back room where the secondary merchandise was worked on.

The two noticed that the twins were hard at work in a corner and managed to convince the clerk to let them meet the designers of the marvelous cloaks. Ron contained an amused grin as the witch introduced him to his brothers. "An impressive set up you have here," Ron told them, "why you have just about everything that a person could ask for out here."

"Yes that we do," George said proudly, "we hope to open up a Hogsmeade branch for the joke part soon and are considering selling abroad to other Ministries with our other products."

"As long as you're not making bears turn into spiders I'm alright with it." Ron said while staring at his brothers.

The twins blinked for a moment before grinning at the figure. "You want us to show you around?"

"Sure," Harry said, "maybe you can tell me if the rumor of exploding toilet seats is real as well."

"We've been considering it, but haven't gotten too far beyond the planning stage at the moment." Fred admitted with a twinkle to his eyes that would have rivaled Dumbledore's had he still been alive.

"Claire you can go on back up front, we'll be okay." George informed the clerk who nodded before heading back towards the front. The twins then proceeded to give a tour until they arrived at what worked for an office waving their wands they made sure the office was clean before they turned to grin at the other two.

"Bloody-"

"Hell-"

"It's great-"

"To see you."

The pair exclaimed as they gave each of the boys a hug. "Good to see you as well Harry," told them with a grin.

"So what happened to you two?"

"Where's Hermione?"

"Yeah that's definitely a new look."

"Polyjuice?"

"Transfiguration?"

"Glamor Charms?"

"You might say it's a kind of Charms," Harry said, "though I think it's closer to ritualistic magic than anything we studied at Hogwarts."

"Yeah, but that's not why we're here." Ron cut in before his brothers started asking questions that they shouldn't be asking.

"Really brother dear?"

"And what might you be here for?"

"Information. We had to do something that had us out of touch and we were out of touch for a few weeks anything new happen while we were out?"

The twins got on their game faces which were only ever shown during a Quidditch match. "Things are bad and getting worse Ron. We still got people disappearing all the time. Snape is the headmaster, has in very own pack of Death Eaters at his call and command. The whole family is being watched for signs of suspicious movements. Mum and Dad have to be on their best behaviors though what with Ginny being stuck at Hogwarts. You-Know-Who's name is under taboo now."

"Taboo?" Harry asked them in confusion.

"Yeah, it means that if any one says his name he sends his people out after you. So whatever you do don't say his name." One of the twins warned their friend.

"He must have done that almost immediately after he took over." Ron theorized to the others, he then turned to Harry in realization. "It also explains how he was able to track us down after we disappeared from Bill and Fleur's wedding Mate! You probably said his name and they came after us like that."

Harry scowled angrily he didn't intend to go back to calling Voldemort You-Know-Who fear of the name brought fear of the being and he wasn't going to let fear of Voldemort run his life no matter how justified he would be in worrying. Besides he was Wolverine, and Wolverine didn't fear anything that the wizards could throw at him. He had to admit though with the magic available to them he wondered if it would be like fighting Proteus who could alter reality in anyway he wanted. Harry hid a shudder at that thought and focused back on the mission. "Okay, has Riddle done anything else?"

"Who?"

"That's his real name," Ron explained to his brothers. "Better keep it to yourselves though since we need you to hang around for a while."

The twins nodded though they did have thoughtful looks on their faces before they responded. "Not really, he's never seen but he does seem to be running things from the shadows for the moment."

"Yeah, dad reckons he's not quite ready to show himself yet for some reason."

"From the visions I've been getting that would make sense he's looking for something I just don't know what."

"You're still seeing what he's doing?" The twins chorused at him.

"Not anymore, I haven't had anything since Halloween night. I get the occasional buzz, headache and faint flashes but nothing more than that."

"Have you two noticed anything else?"

"Not really."

"Not unless you count that there are also a number of vampires, werewolves and every other type of dark creature has started to move around. It's almost as if they're preparing for something."

"Great," Harry complained, "as if our job wasn't hard enough already as it is. Now we have to add in supernatural creatures as well." They had actually been half expecting this but it was still bad to know.

"Anything else, people, things?"

"Fraid not," The twins apologized.

"So he's still busy working on his foothold then." Harry observed.

"That means that we should be able to work things fairly easy as they won't be bothering us unless we make them aware of our presence." Ron noted to the others.

"So where is Hermione?"

"Outside keeping watch," The two replied leaving out the fact that they now had three new partners that would be helping them in some of their mission.

"Will she be alright out there? Maybe it would be safer for her if she were to come inside." Fred said worriedly.

"Trust us they won't recognize her," Harry assured them, "what can you tell us about the Death Eater's and Ministry though?"

"Not a lot, dad is being kept away from anything important and at least half of the Order is dead from various methods. The only thing that we know for sure is that they're getting ready for something big with rituals and Magical creatures. Bill and Charlie were approached for doing jobs like containing and feeding dangerous creatures."

"That doesn't make any sense though why would they want Weasley's to work for them on something like that? Your brothers are known as being firmly in the Orders corner."

"We know-" Fred said nodding.

"We thought it a bit off as well." George finished off.

"What about them, what did they think?"

"Bill refused saying he had too much work at Gringotts right now to begin contracting work out right now."

"And Charlie?" Ron queried worriedly.

The twins looked a bit depressed at this. "He didn't have a choice Ron." They defended their older brother to their younger brother. "It was either that or head back to Romania and he wasn't about to do that anytime soon with the situation. He couldn't find work anywhere, the goblins don't hire wizards to care for the dragons and no one else needed or wanted him around."

"That's alright, we'll try and meet back up with you in a few days find out why they need a dragon handler though. It might be an interesting thing to know because they wouldn't hire either of them unless they were desperate."

"Or they were in need of people with skill," Harry suggested, "there aren't a lot of purebloods that can handle powerful creatures here. Not many English Purebloods want to deal with the dangers of Dragon Handling, they needed a pureblood and Charlie was the only one available. If you see him remind him to keep his head down and his eyes and ears open. It could be that something is going on there that we need to know."

The twins nodded as they realized that their brother was in a lion's den, and unlike their father he wouldn't have the support of anyone should things go off.

"Good. One last thing and then we're out of here, we need eight shield cloaks. We also need to know what it would cost for you to put the same spells on some dragon hide jackets."

"Performing the spell on dragon hide would take nearly an entire day because of its resistance too magic. Fred replied as he considered their request waving the offered bag of money away. "You don't need to pay for this." He admonished the two.

"Actually we do," Ron informed his brother, "if word gets out that you gave away a large shipment of your Auror class shield cloaks the Ministry would be on you in minutes. They would want to know who you gave them to and might force you to talk."

"We've been meaning to head out for a while anyways." The twins returned defiantly.

"No, we need you here right now. Fact of the matter is you guys are our contacts to the rest of the Order and the wizarding world. We need you here to keep us informed."

The twins glared at their brother for a moment before nodding in agreement. "Fine but we don't like it." George grumbled to the two.

"Alright get to work, we need to check a few things out and we'll be here at the end of the day to pick up our orders."

"How much is it all going to cost without the family and bank roller discount." Ron questioned his brothers.

"You have the jackets already?"

"Yeah we managed to pick them up from a dealer working outside the alley." Harry said as he took out his mokeskin pouch and brought out eight dragon hide jackets. They had actually purchased the Hungarian Horntail jackets while on the hellmouth but the twins didn't need to know that.

"Why do you need cloaks and jackets?" George questioned as he began examining the expensive jackets.

"We'll be bouncing between worlds for a while and cloaks are better at helping you disappear into a wizard crowd while jackets are better for disappearing into a muggle crowd." Harry explained to the twins who nodded in understanding.

"And once they have your shield charms on them you can't transfigure the cloaks anyways." Ron added for his friend.

"You two are getting good at this," George said sadly as he looked at his brother and his best friend with sympathy.

"We are who we are George." Ron told his brother clapping him on the back. The twins squashed their younger brother between them in a sandwich hug while Harry watched on silently. "Alright, we'll be back later now what do we owe you?" The twins looked a bit rebellious for a moment before muttering a large amount of gold to their brother. Ron raised his eyebrows at this before he tossed a sack of gold towards his brothers. "I am so in the wrong business," the boy joked to his brothers.

The twins nodded grudgingly as they accepted the gold. "It probably wouldn't cost so much normally but we're going to have to rush this stuff through to get it all done on time."

"Which means that the money is even more important," Ron said with a smirk reveling in getting a few jabs in at his brothers, "be kind of hard to explain why you were doing it otherwise." The twins chuckled at this knowing that their little brother had them as they looked at the bag of gold.

The duo left and walked around watching how people were treated. They also slipped into Olivander's and the Ice Cream shop and stashed some guns and ammo there in case they ever needed them. The chance of a fire fight happening in the alley was very possible. Wizards from all over England came here eventually whether it was to Gringotts or supplies. A fire fight in the alley was very possible and since the only way in was at certain spots as the rest of the area was warded against entering Hermione slipped in as night fell and collected the cloaks and jackets from the twins. She used her psychic powers to make them see her as she used to be not wanting to have to go through all of the motions that Ron and Harry had been forced to go through once in she had placed the jackets and cloaks in her handbag before she disappeared into the night. Leaving the two twins worried as they watched her disappear into the night.

"Well today proved a few things." Xander commented from his seat as he looked at the monitors that were guarding the various approaches into their primary safe house. "We learned that we three he said nodding toward the American girls, are capable of resisting the muggle wards which means that we can come and go as we please without an escort. Whether the same will apply for Hogwarts is debatable but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. So, where do we go from here?"

"Well the only confirmed place where we'll find Death Eaters and their followers will be the Ministry; I say we deal with them first." Ron began as he considered all of the variables that they were going to be up against. "There are probably records there that we can use to find out where other Voldemort and Pureblood supporters are. Once we have that information we can begin planning our missions and we need to work those missions around what we are also doing."

"I don't know mate, we already broke into the Ministry once for part of our other Mission Ron. You remember how close of a thing that was for us?" Harry asked his friend.

"Doesn't matter mate, we need to get those files so we know of the operating area, and of the various Death Eaters." Ron argued with his friend who was against heading into the belly of the beast and sneaking around till they managed to find the information that they needed. "Besides we are more likely to pull it off as long as you don't get it into your head to try another mass breakout or take important trophies that are on display for everyone to see."

"I did what I thought was right," Harry growled at his friend at the reminder at what he did on their last trip to the Ministry of Magic.

"No one's saying that you didn't do the right thing Harry, but you could have picked a better time." Ron returned to his friend. Harry nodded angrily before turning back towards the information that they did have of the Ministry complete with a crude drawing of the inside of the building that Harry and Ron had pieced together from their vague memories of walking through the place when they were younger.

"And who would have those kinds of files Ron?" Hermione questioned him in exasperation. "We can't just waltz in and wander around again like we did before. We were extremely lucky the last time we went in that place. I really doubt that we'll manage to get that lucky again."

"Which means that the front door is shut off to us, what other ways are there? There has to be another way in besides the floo and front door." Ron said as he looked the information over.

"Floo?" Willow questioned.

"Magical method of travel that allows a person to travel between certain fireplaces." Hermione explained to the others.

"Still not a way in though, it would shoot us out right into the main entryway." Harry told her before she got to excited at the idea of just flooing in somewhere.

"Unless we were to find the private floo address of someone who is connected to a floo within an office." Hermione noted to the others. "There is too much risk for that though even if we could find one.

"Well the Ministry is underground right?" Buffy questioned, getting a nod of agreement from the trio. "Can we tunnel our way in there?"

"No, there are too many wards on the outer walls that would stop us from tunneling in." Hermione told them. "Someone with a half a brain realized that there had to be some repelling wards or muggles might drill their ways into the Ministry by accident."

"So how do we get in then?" Harry questioned in annoyance. "It seems like the front door is surprisingly enough the only way in."

"The hunter teams," Willow said to them, "we knock one of them off and take their places, and then while we're in there we take out key officials and find the files that we need."

"A simple and elegant plant that might not take too much trouble planning."

"Where would we find these files?" Ron asked the others.

"Umbridge might have them, she did have files on all of the blood traitors and muggleborns." Harry suggested to them. "Other than that I can't think of a place in the Ministry that would have the kind of information that we would need."

"The department of registration is another such place." Hermione told her friend. "It's a department that keeps track of pureblood births, homes, licenses and everything else."

"So in other words the Ministries records department, where we can find everyone and everything that has to do with wizards and we can sift through their information as we please."

"So can we pretty much accept the fact that everyone in major seats of power are corrupt then?" Xander questioned the others.

"Yeah I'd say so, Auror seems to just be just a shorter word for Death Eater these days." Ron said while eyeing the other young man cautiously wondering what it was that he had planned.

"So if I was to take C4 to some of the higher ranking offices and blow them up nobody would care right?" Xander questioned as he looked all around them. "If nothing else it will make them scared to hang around the office."

"And on the plus side it will force them to rearrange their forces when the blasts take out who knows how many." Hermione said approvingly.

"You do that you'll have to make a quick exit." Angel commented. "There is a supernatural entrance for vampires and werewolves that we can use or there was a hundred years ago. Only thing is it detects exactly what you are so that they can determine how best to deal with you should you become a problem. Wouldn't want to have the purebloods rubbing elbows with the dark creatures now would we?" He asked them dryly.

"Did he just make a joke?" Xander questioned the others in mock surprise.

Angel ignored the other dark haired young man's sarcasm and went back to planning. "On the plus side though the exit isn't very well guarded and I could probably get one person out without any problems. Once the two of us get out we could meet the rest of you back here. It would only take a couple of hours if the sun is still up and we're having to go by the sewer system."

"Why not take out the guards that are covering Grimauld place? They report in all the time so they have to stop by all of the time." Ron asked now that they had a plan of escape and needed a way in.

"Grimauld?" Giles questioned for the first time.

"Our old headquarters we were forced to abandon it though." Harry responded to the Watcher. "It's protected by some of the best spells that have been thought up. Unfortunately they now about where it is and that takes away all of its advantages."

"The amusing part is that they're probably still watching the house though we could probably catch some of them before they realized that we were using the place as a hunting ground. We take them out and have Psylocke do her mental thing and find out where it is that they meet up." Ron suggested as a plan formed in his head.

"It's doable, and it's probably something that they won't be expecting. They're so used to being the attackers that they probably won't know what to do if they were placed on the defensive." Harry said with a feral grin aimed at the others. "We just have to take the guards out and once we have the information that we need we head back to the Ministry and head for the records." The other two magic users grinned in agreement with their friend, they would finally be getting some payback for the things that they had lost and been forced to go through. They wouldn't be reacting this time, they wouldn't be the victims.

* * *

The group set everything up with minimum work. The mission was so simple that some of them at first thought that it was a trap of some kind. The four wizards that had been guarding the place were each taken out. Buffy blasted two of the Death Eaters from behind with her venom blasts, while Harry slid his claws into the third's back, leaving a single survivor which Hermione did a quick mental scan and stole the apparition information from. The entire assault had taken less than seven minutes from beginning to end and most of the time had been spent getting into position.

"Thanks for the information Flint." Hermione sweetly told the Death Eater before she drove her palm upward they all heard the bone crunch and knew that the bone fragments from his nose were now lodged with his brain. They all watched coolly as the Death Eater fell down. The trio ignored the slight pang as they realized that this was someone that they had once known.

'Let's go,' Xander mentally called out over the psychic connection that Hermione had established between them. 'We need to go before someone realizes that they're not alive.' The wizards nodded as Hermione mentally showed the other two where to go before they each grabbed a Scooby and apparated to the Ministry.

The group noted four wizards but they were already moving. Punisher and Black Widow each threw a combat knife catching two wizards in the chest. Moon Knight finished the other two off with a pair of silenced guns that caught the wizards by surprise.

"Grab their wands and robes and let's go!" Wolverine commanded to his team.

The others nodded as they took the Auror's robes and wands. Hermione then transfigured them into wooden statues and then shrunk them till they were each about the size of a small walnut.

"Alright, we'll start with Umbridge's office and work our way up on any other offices that might have the records." Spiderwoman said from behind her mask. "Moon Knight, Black Widow, Punisher you know where you have to go get your missions done." The three nodded as they headed out they would check records elsewhere along with dealing with other items that were on their lists.

Psylocke, Wolverine and Spiderwoman left their friends and headed towards Umbridge's office to find what they could. The group nodded toward the people working at the desks Psylocke distracted them from noticing them as they passed and entered the rooms. There had been some rather obscure locking charms on the door but they had been easy enough for Psylocke to bypass. The spy scope had been taken down much to Wolverine's appreciation he knew that the former Auror would have hated it if his eye had become a permanent feature in the Ministry. He really ought to try and find it though, the eye could be useful in the upcoming fights it would give Mr. Giles a way to watch the way they were doing things or to case a joint. The more he thought of it the more he considered retrieving the eye. If he could find it that is he would have to talk to Hermione about that. If she could apparate them back to where she had taken them last time they might be able to find the tree that he had buried it under.

The three heroes quickly began going through the various files that were lying around the office looking for a record of good or acceptable purebloods. "Jackpot!" Psylocke muttered excitably as she checked the filing cabinet with all of the names of registered wizards. Not only were the ones that were being watched in the cabinet but also wizards that were in good standing with the Ministry/Voldemort. Hopefully the others would be able to find information that would help link the names to places that they lived.

"Alright we need to move out." Buffy told them looking at the clock as the pair stuffed Hermione's handbag full with all of the folders. "We need to find the others and get out, hopefully they've had the same sort of luck that we've had and are ready to make like trees and leave." The other two nodded and headed for the lifts that would take them to the main entrance where they were all meeting up. They saw both Moon Knight and Black Widow stationed and ready to leave. Punisher was off to the side and appeared to be leaving the room. The others ignored the retreating form of their friend and headed for the floo and disappeared from the Ministry this time leaving before they had been found as they had planned their escape much better this time than last time. The group flooed to the Three Broomsticks and then headed away from the bar nodding to the owner as they passed by. Once they were outside Psylocke summoned the Knight Bus which came and took them for a ride and dropped them off at Big Ben. After that the group took a cab to the tower of London once there the group side along apparated to yet another campsite effectively losing any possible tails that they might have picked up. They then side alonged again to the warehouse that they were using as a base.

"How long do you think he'll be?" Willow questioned worriedly as they finally entered the building.

"He's the Punisher, this sort of job won't be too much of a problem for him." Ron said shrugging not looking overly concerned.

"Yeah, this sort of thing is his bread and water we all know that this sort of thing is something that he does best on his own. You know that as well as the rest of us." Harry reminded the girl.

"But he's not really the Punisher he's Xander." The girl argued as if saying that meant that they would go and save the boy.

"They're right Will," Buffy said as she comforted her friend, "besides if things get too bad down there, there's always Angel to help out with his escape, and if he can't help him he would have come and gotten us so that we could go in and save him and bruise his manly ego by still needing us to save him."

"Fine, doesn't mean I have to like it though." Willow grumbled in annoyance. The young girl didn't look like a person with the memories of a super-spy at the moment, but more like a petulant teenager who didn't have things going her way.

"Well as interesting as this is, we have to start going over the files an figuring out just what kind of information there is on these things." Hermione said in a more businesslike manner as she began dumping the files out of her handbag.

"Yes your quiet right." Giles agreed with the girl, he too was worried about Xander but knew that there was nothing that he could do to help the boy for the time being. For the moment the best that he could do would be to help them find the information that they needed for whatever they decided to do next. He only hoped that whatever it was that the young man was doing it wasn't too stupid or dangerous. He really needed to get Buffy to get him more in on the loop on what was going on.

* * *

Xander sighed in boredom as he set the bombs off. You'd think that with everyone here being magical that setting this all up would have been a lot more difficult, but the truth was it was one of the easiest jobs he had ever done. The wizards were so sure of their superiority that they didn't think anything was really going to be a threat to them down here in the heart of their organization. He had waited till all sorts of key officials had arrogantly strolled into their offices before he finally pushed the trigger button on the remote for the bombs. Doors all over the place blew outwards as the C4 blew witches and wizards all over the place. The explosions shook throughout the various levels as explosions blew through the normally calm hub of the wizarding world. Smoke stung people's eyes and blood and body parts could be seen laying in office doors and hallways. The Punisher had visited the doors to each place and after listening to what people were saying had slowly but surely placed his bombs throughout the Ministry of Magic. Normally he would have rigged the explosions to go off when people entered the offices but there were so many people and he didn't want to chance being stuck here at night. So he had rigged the offices and blown them sky high. Taking out Umbridge's office was a particularly satisfying thing to do when you considered all of the heavy perfume and various cat plates that had been stored in there. Punisher had only left the elevators or lifts free as he wanted them to be willing repair everything but he had set up a large briefcase bomb near the center of the floo network hopefully he would take some of the fireplaces out.

Xander adjusted his jacket and strode off unconcerned about what had happened. The craziest part was that no one tried to stop him unless it was because they wanted to get out before he did. He quickly made his way down to the Department of Magical Creatures. He made a quick stop and added some makeup to make himself look pale before he slipped out through that exit without anyone being the wiser.

The old him would have stood out in the dark creature section but his very demeanor had him able to walk alongside Angel who seemed to exuding a dark vibe all of his own. A few of the vampires even bowed their heads slightly to the vampire causing Xander to wonder just what was up with that. It seemed that Angel still had some secrets about his souless days that he had yet to tell them if it merely meant a heightened respect then he couldn't argue with it. It was probably just a bit of a leftover from the days of Angelus who had been a legend and was still one today even if he did now work for the white hats though in their groups case he would say that gray hats would be a closer description.

Xander and Angel nodded to everyone as they finally entered the warehouse each of them were embraced by a pair of California girls who despite everything had been worried for their safety. After the hugs were done they held at arm's length and inspected to make sure that no damage had befallen either of them before they were allowed to come the rest of the way in.

"Everything go as planned?" Ron questioned the other boy.

"Yeah, with luck we'll find out just how well I did in the obituaries." Xander told the other boy. "Did we get what we needed out of there?"

"Yeah, we have records here for contact information for everyone here. Names of homes, hangouts, political feelings it's all here." Hermione said as she held up a file and flipped through it. "The only problem we're going to have is sorting through it all and get the kind of results that we want."

"A job that is going to be all that much more difficult without us though," Harry said grimly, "the three of us need to head back out on our mission. It's one of the things that we have to do to finish this war up and while this is important to we have to stick with our primary objective if we want to end this war anytime soon."

Buffy nodded in understanding she knew that this partnership was going to be sporadic at best and that their mission to deal with the Dark Lord's support system was secondary to the real mission which the other trio were working on. "Okay, I suggest that you rest up today then and tomorrow you head out unless you want to head out now or sometime tonight?"

"No we'll wait till morning, we have a few things that we need to get first." Hermione said to the group. "Ron, I want you to get any and all of the gear that you think we might need and store it in the tent we'll have to figure a way to move electronics without storing them in the tent since there's a chance that the magic may disrupt any equipment that we take with us."

"Right Hermione, I'll get right on it along with decent camping gear this time to." Ron said as he climbed to his feet and began working on the requested items.

"One of the nicer things about the possessions is that we probably won't starve going out in the woods anymore." Harry noted with amusement remembering that before they had gone to Sunnydale they had been eating whatever roots and vegetables that they could scrounge up. He hoped that they never had to worry about eating like that again.

"Alright, well we have to work on this so we'll let you do what you need to." Buffy told the wand wavers who nodded their thanks to the Watcher and three Americans. The groups spent long hours preparing themselves for their individual missions.

* * *

The next morning the group looked up as Harry brought in a copy of the Daily Prophet and tossed it in front of a sleepy eyed Xander. "Thought you might want to see the kind of results that your work had made bub. You did make the headlines after all even if they did get some of their information messed up. Not that that's something all that new and different when it comes to the prophet." Xander flipped the paper up so that they could all look at what the headlines read.

MINISTRY ATTACKED BY Muggleborns & Undesirables!!

By Rita Skeeter

In a completely unprovoked attack yesterday the Ministry came under fire from muggleborns who are resisting the recent crackdown on returning true wizards and witches magic to them. The illegal magic users had some sort of explosive charms or potions placed over forty pure and proud witches and wizards lost their lives in this attack. The Minister of Magic had this to say about the attack. "Many a good witch and wizard died due to this cowardly attack on the Ministry when these pretend magic users are found they shall be put to trial at once for their crimes against true wizarding people." This reporter can only hope that these so called magically born muggles can be put to a stop before any more magic users suffer needlessly at the hands of these dangerous individuals.

In response to this attack the Ministry is preparing a specially trained force of hit wizards who's sole duty will be to bring in the more dangerous elements of these dangerous criminals that threaten the very well being of our society. This special team shall be made up of some of the most powerful and terrible magical beings and wizards that can be found. In agreement with the hunting down of a force of killers we shall use our own killers and show them what it means to attack true magicals. Head of Ministry security Auror Dwalish said proudly as he brandished his wand in anticipation. These Muggleborns have drained our world nearly dry! It is time for us to reclaim and take what is ours by birthright. Madame Umbridge said after she congratulated the Minister on his choice for a swift reaction to this needless attack. If these so called muggleborn wizards and witches were truly natural born magic users then they would have no need to fear the Ministry which takes care of its own. The monsters that attacker the Ministry it seems are about to have a rude awakening when they realize that they have started a fight that they cannot hope to win. This reporter will be glad when these dangerous elements are found and the Wizarding world can breathe easier without having to worry about the dangers that are trying to force their way into making us change our ways and corrupting the natural order of the way that the world is supposed to work.

For More On the attack pg 7

For reactions to Attack pg 12

For More on the Hunting Team pg 8

Willow shook her head in amusement as Giles gaped at the newspaper article. "Xander, I do believe that you've gone and made several people very upset with those toys of yours that you left behind."

Xander grinned a bit as he looked at the article he then turned to look at the obituaries that held the lists of the ones that he had managed to take out of the game. "Well I think that I have their attention now." The teen commented the others nodded with their teammate watching him carefully none of them wanted him to go over the edge nor did they want him to feel guilt over what he had done. As the Punisher he had acted for the first time. This wasn't killing demons or merely being possessed. Last night had been the first time that he had done things that he might never have dared. Last night had been his test and he had passed it he really was as ruthless as the original Punisher was. Whether his test would leave marks on him was unknown and only time would tell.

"Are you saying that you did that Xander?" Giles finally questioned in shock as he gestured to the headlines on the newspaper. "Are you saying that you killed all of those people in cold blood?" The Watcher looked at the boy before him in disappointment. "Xander you cannot just go and kill people just because they do things that you disapprove of. Besides, the mission was supposed to be an information gathering mission not an assassination mission. If you continue like this the people of the world won't have any choice but to run you in. This is not your bloody comic book where people will turn their heads the other way and everything works out in the hero's favor real life doesn't work like that. They will find you and hunt you down and if you're lucky that's all that they'll do to you." Giles glared at the boy as he tried to get through to him the seriousness of what he had done. "They're more likely want to try and kill you though rather than catch you if you keep this up."

Xander returned the stare with a hard glare. "Giles this is a different war than what you were trained for and than the one that you were training Buffy for." Xander told the Watcher. "We don't have the luxury of knowing whether or not someone is good or evil like you do in the Watcher's Council Giles. We have to deal with what the humans are doing not what they are. For you it's fairly simple human good, demon bad. The fact that you work with a vampire is just something that just happened it doesn't really mean anything." Xander continued angrily as he began to build up steam at the man that he respected. "Come on Giles wake up and smell the Coffee already or at least the Early Grey! This is not the same war that you're used to fighting and we're not a reactionary force anymore either. You know these things we can see it in your eyes you've been around the bend enough times to know that the real world is like whether it has humans or demons, that you even understand. The only thing is something is holding you back from admitting the truth from accepting it for what it is. Now what is it?"

"It's because we're doing it isn't it?" Hermione questioned the Watcher intently as she sensed the guilt pouring off of the man. "It has nothing to do with what or why he's done it, but the fact that he was the one to do it. You feel like you've failed him."

"I have though," Giles returned stonily, "it's my fault that they and you are even like the way you are instead of being normal. if I had been paying attention Ethan would never have been able to perform that ruddy spell of his. I would also appreciate it if you would stay out of my head Miss Granger if I want you to know something I'll call out to you." Hermione blushed at that as she realized she had dug through his mind without realizing it again.

"If this, if that." Harry said to the man, he was not about to be distracted from the man's main problem. "You can't fix everything, and there are too many if's for you to be able to fix anyways. We got to live with what we wished we were not you."

"But…"

"Enough Giles." Buffy snapped at the Watcher.

"Alright, well as fun as this isn't," Ron deadpanned, "I have all of our gear ready and we need to get going if we're going to complete our mission. We'll try and get in contact with you lot in a few days." He told them.

"Alright, by then we should hopefully know what it is that we're up against and how we can best deal with them." Willow returned to the young man.

"Try and stay out of trouble though would you, it's a pain trying to get you out all of the time." Buffy shot at them with a grin.

"Like you're one to talk?" Harry returned to the Slayer with a smirk as his team headed to the doors where their packs were sitting waiting to be picked up. "You lot seem to find trouble just as much as we do."

"Details, details," Buffy said waving him off as if his argument was a minor thing. The group of magic users chuckled before they headed out. Buffy waited till they were gone before looking at her team. "Alright Giles talk to me, can you do this without losing it on us? I thought you understood what it was that we were doing and what it is that were becoming. That little performance of yours shows us that you may not be as ready as we thought you were though. Can you deal with us doing this or should we keep quiet about what it is that we're doing and just ask you to do research?" The other members of the team waited for the Watcher to make his choice. Angel and Xander kept their faces emotionless while the girls let their masks fall somewhat and let the Watcher see that his refusal bothered them more than they had told him.

"So what's it going to be Giles? You can't help us in a war if you're not willing for all of us to be taking that final step and you know it." Xander bluntly told the man that they all respected.

"I don't like it, but perhaps I shall have to accept it." Giles conceded to the teen as he wandered out of the room. He needed to be alone for a bit he had some heavy thinking to do at the moment on what it was that his students were now doing and what part he was willing to play in their lives.

"Okay, while he's getting his head screwed on straight we need to decide what house we want to hit on our own." Buffy told her friends trying to ignore the empty spot that Giles normally filled in these types of meetings his need to think things out and lack of support affecting her already. "What do we have Xan?"

"It's gonna be tough Buffster, there's almost nothing that we can do to the old family houses because of the wards on the houses. We can see them attack them if we want but we'll be fighting against the various protective spells that surround them. I mean we'll pretty much be fighting the ground itself. We might have a slight advantage with our non magical gear." He theorized to them. But that's because they don't really know what any of it can do except in its most basic form."

"That's if the house doesn't have some sort of mental shields on them." Willow told them. "If they have shields that attack due to intent we could be in a lot of trouble."

"Can we destroy the places from a distance?" Buffy questioned hopefully of her friends. "It would save us a lot of time if we could."

Willow shook her head in the negative at this sugestion. "No, the protective spells would keep the buildings safe from anything short of a bomb and might even stand up to that since wizards here are ignorant of how dangerous our weapons are from what Ron told us. When you consider the average life span of a wizard it would be impossible for most wizards not to be somewhat aware of them. That means that they probably have spells that kept bombs off them during the London blitz. Now that could mean that the notice me not charms work better than we originally thought they did and bombers completely ignored areas that had wizard buildings in them or the wards are enough protection against that sort of an attack. Either way it means that long distance attacks are useless on magical structures.

"So much for that idea," Buffy grumbled, "it would have saved us a lot of work."

"Yeah, and I doubt that planting C4 will work a second time either." Xander said as they scrapped one plan. "They'll probably have so many wards set up that they'll interfere with any kind of radio signals that we use. Meaning that they'll set off earlier or they won't go off at all."

"So I guess that means we shouldn't worry about the houses and stuff and worry about where there are bases or meeting places and take them out there?" Willow questioned thoughtfully as she placed the pile of papers with addresses off to the side.

"So who should we focus on first?"

"How about we let Angel go out tonight to get an idea of what is going on and wait and see just what it is that he says is happening on the vampire demon side of things? We should also check for any nests while we're out here anyways."

"Yeah, particularly since we can't teleport and have to plan each of our moves beforehand." Xander reminded them that their method of near instant transportation was now gone they would have to figure a way to get around the country. That probably meant a handful of various vehicles scattered around the country that would be on standby for them to use as they were needed.

"Alright, we keep investigating the paperwork and let Angel come and tell us where any big bads might be hanging their hats then." Willow said in agreement.

"I could do it." Xander offered to the others.

"Not this time Xander." Angel told him coolly. "You're not a supernatural creature like a vampire and I'm betting that things are a little tense here at the moment anyways since there's a war going on and the werewolves have already picked a side. It's better if I go alone if you have to come with me though you'll be waiting outside of the bars that I plan on going too. You might have the right mind frame to walk out of that place now but, knowing your alter ego you're more likely to blow up, or permanently kill our contact than talk to them."

"Punisher's way gets the answers we want and it does it fast though." Xander argued with the vampire.

"Yeah but they usually can't talk ever again after your done with them." Angel pointed out to the teen who finally nodded in acceptance. "I'll be back then," Angel told them as he left through the sewer entrance.

"And what do we do while we wait for tall, dark, depressing, and dead to get back?" Xander questioned the girls.

"Train," the girls said as they jumped off their seats and grabbed Xander by the arms and dragged him to the training room.

Angel sighed as he wandered through the dark alleys that were part of a demon controlled area. He knew that if he wanted the kind of information that would help the others then this was the place that he would have to go. There were a few bars here that were similar to Willy's that he could find everything that he needed. He slid into one such bar and looked around the place curiously. He hadn't really been on this side of the ocean in years vampires were only recently beginning to trust in the travel methods of the world and demons that did travel stayed away from vampires meaning that his reputation was probably still intact as Angelus if Spike's reactions to him were anything to go by. It seemed that only Sunnydale vampires knew about his curse which meant that he still had his reputation to use. He could also casually kill a few demons without too much worry.

He looked at the giant cage in the center of the room where cage matches were fought before heading toward the bar he wasn't going to get what he wanted from that cage the bartender and the patrons were the ones that would be able to help him. He needed to make choice though and needed to make it soon and it had nothing to do with his mission here but the ones who had given him the mission. Buffy and her friends were darker there was no denying it; they now had of the moral compasses of spies. He had on occasion been like that when he stopped trying to make the lines between himself and Angelus so clear. He admitted there was something freeing in behaving that way yet it also scared him he feared that if he stayed that way that one day he would become Angelus once again. The vampire with a soul though knew that if he was to continue helping Buffy though he was going to have to unleash the monster that was within. He was going to have to become what he wished and feared to be. Not Angel not Angelus but some sort of cross between them.

What'll be? The bartender asked.

Angel looked up and realized now was the time to make the choice he wasn't a monster but not was he a man but he was a vampire and it was time to start acting like it. It might mean that he and Buffy couldn't be together but it was time to be who and what he was. "Give me a shot of Irish whisky with some animal blood in it monkey if you have it."

"No monkey blood boss man. We do have dog, cat pig, horse, cow, chicken, a little bit of virgin, Yank, Australian, Italian French hedge witch, and some tiger though." The bartender listed off to the vampire wondering what it was about him that looked so familiar and gave him a chill.

"I'll take the tiger." Angel said having never had that type of blood and figured it might taste interesting and it wasn't likely he was going to get the chance again anytime soon. The vampire waited until the barman had placed his drink before he began talking. "Tell me where all of the main players in this town hang their hats." He commanded in a soft and deadly voice.

The bartender looked up at this. "Look I don't know who you are pal, or who you think you are but you want something you ask nicely and pay you don't give orders though. If you cause troubles then I have my boys deal with you and throw you out if they don't feel like dusting you that is."

Angel turned to look at the pair of vampires that had come up on either side of him. Angel pulled a pair of stakes from his hidden pockets and pulled his arms up and staked the vampires while keeping his eyes on the bartender. Now you want to talk? He questioned the man or do I need to do something else to convince you that I want that information?"

The bartender swallowed nervously the vampire hadn't even gotten up to stake his soldiers and each of them was over twenty years old how had he managed to do that? I" can find out for you. Um, there's the demon clans hanging out in uptown while the vampire clans have downtown. Something has caused some of the demons and vampire to pull up though something in uptown and downtown is making waves. A lot of the werewolves hang out in the magical sections of Sherwood forest. Rumor is that the Alpha of the wolves has been doing some heavy recruiting lately. Not smart if you ask me getting so edgy and all makes one wonder what he's up to you know? Now this particular werewolf has got a reputation for going after kids ten and younger usually. However he's going after adults lately, which means whatever he's been preparing for is soon. Word on the street is some sort of human magic users have decided to try and take over the world, not end it but take it over. Sounds like some kids story don't it?" Angel said nothing as he waited for the bartender to finish telling him what was going on. "Maybe this wolf is a part of that group. That's all I know, but the vampire masters seem to know a bit more than I do. Word is that there have been talks with something called Death Eaters."

Angel nodded before getting up and walking out a couple of demons tried to stop him but one had his arm broken and the other had a broken bottle shoved into his skull. "Anyone else?" The vampire with a soul questioned, as he looked around the room. When none answered and he heard his soulless name hissed out he figured that he would be able to walk out without problems. Angel ignored the looks of some creatures as he stalked out.

(I really need some suggestions on how to write Angel I'm trying to go for an attitude similar to when Darla and Dru were tearing up L.A any suggestions on how to do that would be appreciated.)


	7. Chapter 7

Hey ya'll back with another chapter my excuse for the wait is a lot of papers and a dropped laptop that and my BD was yesterday. On a good note i do have the next 10 pages already written.

* * *

Buffy looked up as her vampire partner and possible boyfriend walked into the room. He looked kind of tired and nodded to her as he tossed some files toward her before he began heading to the area that had been designated as his since it had no windows. Buffy wondered what he had found and began skimming over it and grinned she looked back toward him and deciding it didn't matter ran up to him and gave him a giant hug from behind. This is great she said excitedly as she waved the folders around. The amount of information in these things is great.

"What did dead boy find?" Xander questioned as he slipped into the room looking at the happy Slayer/Spiderwoman as she gave very generous hugs to the animated blood sucking corpse. He could have made more comments about the vampire but he was more interested in what he had found than in trading barbs with him.

"Satellite photos of a werewolf encampment in Sherwood and some giant clan encampments in Scotland." Buffy said with a grin as she waved the topographical pictures in her hands.

"Impressive." Xander admittedly grudgingly as he snatched one of the photos away and began examining it. "How did you manage to get these though? I thought magical beings had some sort of natural cloaking device from this sort of thing."

"They do," Giles agreed as he looked at the file that the vampire had brought them. "This should be impossible, yet somehow you managed it."

"You're right it is normally impossible for something like to work." Angel admitted to the suspicious pair that were looking at him curiously. "This particular satellite happens to belong to some very powerful demons though, ones who added some demon magic that allowed for the cameras to see past most types of magical concealment and see what is really there. The only bad thing is that it can't do very well on zoom and can only be used so much every 24 hours."

"How much did you have to shell out to get this then?" Xander questioned.

"Several thousand," the vampire admitted, "I also have a folder with what people are saying about what's going on but I thought that you might like having a basic idea of the kind of numbers that we're going to be up against."

"Considering how much information this is, it was probably worth it." Willow said as she grabbed at something to look at. She then began typing as she began running the numbers on known and estimated strengths of the wizarding world and Riddle's followers. "Alright we'll go over this and we'll make a plan for sometime in the next week to try and take at least one of these places out. Riddle will have to rely on his Death Eaters and Dementors if we can disable his werewolf packs and giant clans. Without their support he loses his tanks and commandos and is forced to use his grunts to finish things up." She said with a grin as she showed the group the numbers that she had come up with.

"Yeah, it'll be a lot less scary to face him if he's not being backed up by fifty foot creatures that could literally walk all over us." Xander said. Angel nodded as he set Buffy down and headed for his bed, the night had been draining on him as he had made choices and done things that he hadn't done since the fifties the uncaring lifestyle though was probably going to be the one that saw him through this war that they had gotten themselves involved in.

When the ensouled vampire woke up that evening he saw that several maps had been set up and there was a large amount of gear setup. "Should I ask?" He questioned as he accepted his mug of blood from Giles who seemed more interested in staying out of the way of the other members of the group than in trying to get in their way.

"They're going to make a strike on the giants, they figure that a group of giants shouldn't be all that much more difficult than some of the demon and vampire haunts that they have cleaned out in Sunnydale."

"Can they?" The vampire pressed.

"I honestly don't know." The Watcher admitted as he began to polish his glasses. "Your average Slayer wouldn't stand much of a chance against a full grown giant much less an entire clan. However Buffy is far stronger and faster than your average Slayer is by quite a bit. There is also the fact that she has the others to help her, and the training that makes her suited in combating giants. It is anyone's guess really as to whether or not they can accomplish the task that they have set for themselves."

Angel nodded, the extent to the abilities that the teens now had made them extremely powerful, dangerous, and somewhat unpredictable in what they could and couldn't do. Combined with Angel and Giles knowledge of the way that this world worked there was very little that they probably couldn't figure out. It was merely the matter of finding a target right now and destroying it. "So what's the plan?" He questioned them walking toward the group ready to help them with their problems even if it was possible.

"Deadboy your awake", Xander said with a grin. "Had you slept much harder we were afraid you were dead, but then we remembered that you already are." He joked.

Angel ignored the joke, though it lacked most of the venom and anger that it had once carried when those jokes were made the vampire still found them rather boring. Of course that was probably because he had heard demons say them for his entire un-life some of the same demons that had said those jokes were the ones that he usually killed. Still with Xander it was a special case. Originally it had been jealousy, now Xander said the jokes more out of habit and while Angel disliked them he knew that it only goaded the boy on even more which was why he kept quiet about it for the most part and only said something to him every once in a while. Still there was something different about the jokes since Halloween. Angel just wished he knew what they meant now.

"What's the plan?" Angel repeated now looking toward the girls hopefully.

"It's really fairly simple," Willow said, "the giant clan is based here so we'll sneak up during the night and attack them. We figure that we can hit the base and kill off enough of the giants that they will hopefully return to the mountains that's if we don't hurt them too much. According to Hermione, now if we take out the head giant then there will be a trial by combat and they might retreat back into the mountains if the new leader or Gurg decides it's not worth the trouble of helping Riddle if it's going to get them killed."

"You talked to the others?"

"Yeah, while you were asleep we told them that we had plans on taking out the giants and Hermione told us that if we only took out the head giant it would probably be better." Xander explained getting down to business.

"Are they joining you on this mission?" Angel questioned the redhead.

"No, they're working on some clues for their special project actually." Giles informed him sounding slightly put out. "Are you sure that you shouldn't wait until they are able to assist you in this?" He questioned the others hopefully. "It would be wiser, and safer to deal with them as a group than one on one." The group looked at each other for a moment as they considered what he said before shaking their heads at the suggestion. "Why not though? It would be a wise move to work as a team instead of each of you doing your own thing." The Watcher complained to the group.

"The longer we leave them, there the more people that they could kill. For the time being they're sticking to country settlements, but what happens when they decide to start moving into the cities, towns, military bases and factories?" Buffy questioned the Watcher. "Don't say anything either Angel," She told her boyfriend, "I know you're not a real big fan of the English and all but you have to admit that this something that has to be done. The longer that we try and put it off for whatever reason that we think of, the more likely that it is that more people will die because we wouldn't do what had to be done to them."

Angel looked a bit cross but nodded in acceptance that she was right about what it was that they had to do no matter how much he didn't like it. Why couldn't the stupid English fight their own battles. "Fine let's do it." The vampire grumbled.

"Good, glad you're with us we got a plane to catch and then we'll have to parachute into the target zone. While we're doing that Giles is going to begin tracing the werewolves movements from the pictures and see if he can't find a pattern in anything or at least something else that might be useful." Willow explained to the vampire as she tossed him a dark jumpsuit.

"Besides, we told them what we were planning and they agreed to be suited up and ready to back us up if we need it." Xander informed the Watcher. "We're not stupid Giles, we do have backup plans for when things go wrong." The young man informed the Watcher.

"I apologize then," Giles said to the three teens. "I seem to have misjudged you."

"No you're still remembering us from before Halloween, when we threw everything we had at one target." Buffy returned to him with a knowing smile. "A method that surprisingly didn't get all of us killed.

"Yes, but you have learned since then though." Giles assured the group with a proud smile. "While I might have preferred it if you had learned it in a different way there is no doubt that I am proud of the way you have so far handled yourselves. Is there anything else about the plan I should know?"

"The others will be staying at a motel all suited up and ready to kill if we need them. This way they can continue doing their work, but still help us out if needed. Besides from what little we know of their special project we know that it needs to be done before we can engage Riddle in combat. If we try to take him out before then I understand that even we wouldn't stand a chance against this guy."

"I still think that you're taking an unnecessary risk." Giles returned to the group. "Giants may be somewhat dim, but they are not going to be the easy kills that you seem to be thinking that they are."

"Let's hope you're wrong and that they go down easy." Willow returned to him. "Besides, the sooner that they can take out Riddle, the sooner this war will be over. All this is going to do is take one of his sources of troops away. At most this is only going only slow him down and take away some of his troops. He still has a number of sources that he can dip into right now if he decides to all we're doing is taking one away." The others nodded in agreement with this as Angel shrugged into the jumpsuit and put on a pair of combat boots.

"Looks like we're ready let's go."

The team headed to the airport where the plane they had contracted was meeting them. I don't like this Willow said as she looked around the place.

"I know, what you mean," Angel said, "there's somebody out there."

"Xander go with Angel and deal with them then." Buffy told the two.

The pair nodded and slipped away into the shadows to find the people that were making them nervous. The pair found a couple of men with headphones on and a small satellite like device in their hands as they listened in on the sounds coming from the hanger. The duo watched as the pair seemed to be taking notes. "So you think that we'll catch him trying to smuggle drugs this time mate one of the men questioned.

"I hope so, the guy has managed to squeak by on all sorts of technicalities in the past." The other said. "What the hell are they speaking?"

"Russian I think," the other man said in annoyance, "this has just made the job a lot harder. We'll have to get all the tapes down to a translator to find out what they're talking about."

"What really gets me is that they could be saying something that we could bust them on though." The other man grumbled his hand hitting a nearby wall.

The two dark figures came up behind the listeners and quietly grabbed the two in sleeper holds. The two waited patiently as they flailed about for a moment before they finally settled down. The pair then tied them up after taking their badges and equipment before they melted back into the shadows. They reappeared inside the hanger after depositing all of their new acquisitions with Giles who would take the things back to the safe house.

The group loaded onto the plane and told the pilot to take them up. The group was amused as the normally cool and calm vampire was close to an anxiety attack over being stuck in the air but kept their humor to themselves for the most part only bothering to snicker at the vampire as he took one of his first plane rides.

"Alright people we're coming over the drop zone." The pilot shouted to them. "We'll be over there in three minutes."

"Danke," Willow returned to the man. They had decided not to let the man know that they spoke English so that anyone that that was searching for them would be looking for a group of Russians instead of for them. It would hopefully throw people like the police or any other drug runners off their trail long enough for them to disappear should they try and trace them. Xander looked at Willow who nodded at him as he opened the door so that they would be able to jump. The group checked their parachutes one last time before nodding at each other before they each began to jump Buffy went first followed by Angel, Xander and Willow. The pilot nodded as he saw the group disappear into the night before he turned his plane around and headed back already thinking about what he was going to do with the money he had made tonight unaware of the angry cops that would be waiting for him.

The group landed about a mile from the giants camp and after making sure that they were all in one piece. Xander particularly enjoyed watching Angel taking grateful and cautious steps all over the place as he enjoyed having his feet back on the earth. "So let's go," Xander said, "we have us some giants to kill."

"So do we even know what the gurg looks like?" Angel asked.

"No, but from what Psylocke told us the usual method of figuring out the boss will work for these guys though." Willow informed the vampire.

"Yeah B.S.U should figure it all out." Xander said with a grin.

"B.S.U?" Angel asked, not having heard the teen use that term before.

"Biggest, Smelliest, Ugliest." Xander explained as if it was obvious earning a grin from the girls and an incredulous stare from the vampire.

"Alright folks game time." Buffy told them after a minute. The others nodded and Angel watched as the laughter left their eyes and they all became as hard and shadowy as his own. The group stripped off their jumpsuits showing that each of them were in their uniforms/costumes.

"Move out," Spiderwoman ordered to the team. The others all nodded and began running towards the giant camp.

* * *

Angel looked at the camp and didn't like what he was seeing there was at least five guards. While the giants weren't acting overly observant, there was a definite danger from trying to sneak up on this group of twenty foot and taller creatures. The monsters weren't creatures that they could hurt with their physical strength either as each of them was carry around giant clubs that even Spiderwoman would probably need both hands to lift with.

"Can we get in without being seen?" He questioned the others.

"Hopefully yes, if not then we start fighting and show them what we can do." Spiderwoman returned to him before she put her hand onto the radio set by her ear. "This is Scooby team respond."

"Gold team here," Wolverine's gruff voice crackled into their headsets, "we're locked and loaded just say the word and we're there.

"Confirmed." Spiderwoman answered into the radio before she cut the transmission and turned to look at her team. "Black Widow, Angel get going we need you to penetrate the camp and try to do the job quietly. Punisher and I will act as scouts and try and alert you if anything happens outside." She said commanded the pair as she took in the scene.

"Understood," The stealthiest members of the group told her before they snuck into the brush and seemed to disappear from sight despite having been there only moments ago. The pair left behind un-slung their rifles and found spots that they could provide cover if they needed it.

The pair's wait was cut short as some sort of alarm went off. "Great." Punisher grumbled as the giants went on the alert and began searching for anyone out in the brush. A giant dropped several large tree branches onto a fire in the center of camp and a giant flame rose from the wood lighting the entire area up. "I don't know about you, but I'd say that stealth just went out the window."

"Seems like it." Spiderwoman returned to her friend as she looked down the sight of her own rifle. "Looks like all the giants are getting up, we better give them a proper wakeup call." The two figures began firing their weapons and watched in disbelief as the armor piercing rounds that they were using seemed to have no affect on the giants.

"What the hell?" Punisher exclaimed.

"Crap, the magic that protects them from spell fire must also protect them from our bullets."

"Great we have all of these heavy duty weapons and even they don't have the punch needed to blast into these guys." Punisher said slamming his fist into the ground. "We have to back off and regroup." He told Spiderwoman.

"No can do they've already cut us off." Spiderwoman noted nodding toward some giants that were spreading out searching for whatever had triggered the alarm. Some giants were heading their way since their shots had given away their position.

"Let's try for eye shots maybe those will get through." Punisher suggested as he picked his gun up and began aiming at the approaching giants. The dark figure waited patiently tuning out the alarms as he prepared his shot. He squeezed the trigger and watched as the bullet hit the target. The giant roared angrily as it brought it's hand up to its face as it finally felt the shot. "Gotchya!" Punisher said with a predatory grin, but that failed as he saw the giant wipe its face and look around angrily for the thing that had hit it. "Great," he grumbled as he tossed his rifle away and pulled out another gun from the folds of his jacket and fired it toward the giants.

"A grenade launcher?" Spiderwoman questioned as she picked up the discarded rifle and watched for their friends to show up.

"Hey it may work." Punisher shot back as he fired at the giants who howled as the explosives impacted against them. "Finally, something that they feel." He grimaced as he realized he didn't have very many rounds for the heavy weapon. "We won't be able to hold them off by ourselves much longer." He warned to the hero.

"Right," Spiderwoman said as she raised her hand to the side of her head. "Gold team, this is Scooby team, we need back up now. Nothing that we throw at these guys seems to be hurting them."

"We're on our way." Moon Knight returned. A few minutes later the pair could hear rifle fire and a feral roar as three new figures appeared with loud cracks. They watched as Wolverine rushed at the giants and began scaling one of the giants digging his claws into the towering figure. The Wolverine was skilled at fighting giant beings that towered over him and was probably the only one of them that had the know how to fight in this style. Still even with his unbreakable claws it would be difficult as all of the large beings had thick hides that would take forever for even the Wolverine to penetrate. While the others were firing they watched as Wolverine climbed up to the throat barely dodging a number of blows that the giant was throwing at him to dislodge him. Wolverine made it to the throat and slashed at the giant he was on opening up the throat. The mutant howled though as the giant now angry clapped its hands together. The sonic boom from the clap knocked the mutant off his perch and into the ground. Wolverine spat blood out as he tried pushing himself up. The giant not about to let the only one of the small creatures that had hurt it to walk away slammed its foot down squashing the mutant like a bug back into the ground.

"Somebody get him out of there." Psylocke commanded. Spiderwoman slung the rifles over her back before jumping toward the down mutant. As the giant lifted its foot to examine its handiwork the heroine pushed up slamming her entire body into the foot overbalancing the giant and sending it tumbling down. While the giant was pulling itself up she slung Wolverine over her shoulder and carried him away from the fight.

"Black Widow, Angel, where are you?" Moon Knight called out over the radio as he fired hoping that he would get a lucky shot in.

"Here," Black Widow responded as she landed in front of the white clad hero. In either hand she held her guns and was firing in the direction of the giants.

"Did you get him?"

"Negative, nothing we tried on him seemed to work on him. All of our attacks didn't even affect him." The redhead said irritably. "By now we don't have a chance of getting back to him tonight though. He will be ready and expecting us we must fall back and rethink or plan of attack."

"What about your wands can they do anything against them?" The Black Widow asked hopefully, as she watched an entire clip of hollow round bullets bounce off the giant's skin.

"Neg that. Their hides are too strong magically for us to hurt them. All we'll manage to do is show them where we're shooting from. That's why the plan was to use guns instead of magic in the first place because they wouldn't be able to see us as easily in the dark or where our shots were."

"Well that just sucks." The girl said in annoyance as she hid behind a boulder and reloaded her guns. "Now that Wolverine's down it also means that Spiderwoman is the only one that is even capable of fighting back as well. She noted in a detached way as she made observations on the way the mission was going."

"Confirmed," Moon Knight agreed with her

"You're right," Spiderwoman admitted, "everyone head to the rendezvous point B." She ordered this place is just too hot to stick around for any longer. She ordered this place is just too hot to stick around for any longer. Punisher you're the only one with weapons that can hurt them and I might be able to knock another one of them down so you and I are the rear guard

"Understood," Punisher replied as he cocked his gun and prepared to fire. He would have to make each shot count, and would have to do them slowly or the others wouldn't have the time that they needed to pull back. He ran a mental inventory on what he had with him and decided that he might as well use the 2 pounds of C4 that he had on him as well. Who knows he might get lucky and hurt the giants before he was through. The other two heroes watched as their friends made a hasty retreat. A retreat that was slowed down as Angel and Wolverine hobbled away from the battle site. The two then ducked as a blast of light headed toward them.

"Great, as if things weren't bad enough now we have wizards shooting at us as well." Punisher grumbled as two more streaks of light came at them.

"Look on the bright side, at least we can do some damage to them. If we take them out the night won't have been a complete waste for us." Spiderwoman pointed out to her friend as she passed him his rifle.

"Good point, wish we had more time to deal with this though than like this." The pair then flipped the weapons to automatic and emptied their clips in the general direction of where the spell blasts had come from. "Time to go," Punisher said as they tossed their rifles over their shoulders and began running in the direction that the others had. "Here throw this back there." He told his companion as he tossed her the C4 charge. Spiderwoman nodded and tossed the explosive at the giants. Punisher waited a moment before pulling the trigger. They watched it detonate over the heads of the giants camp. While it didn't hurt anyone it did distract them from following after them allowing them to escape into the night.

They regrouped in a nearby field before they then had the wizards apparate them back to the warehouse so that they could assess their injuries. Harry and Angel had the most blood. Harry from being stomped on and Angel from taking a cutting curse to the back. The cut would heal up in a while, had Angel been human it's doubtful that he would have survived the strike as it had cut him to the bone. The others had bruises and scratches that running through the countryside had given them. Giles watched in amazement as Harry's body regenerated from being crushed. Flesh seemed to mend itself and bones that had been forced out of joint were forced to realign themselves as the body repaired the damage done to the figure. All the while Harry seemed to float in and out of consciousness as the pain of the speedy healing affected him.

"Are you all alright?" Giles questioned as he watched the boy mend.

"Swell," Harry grunted as he picked up a bottle of beer that had been lying on the ground taking a slug of the drink. The mutant grunted a bit as the last of his bones faded from sight.

"And the rest of you?"

"I'll be okay." Angel said as Buffy was covering his back up while she fed him a bag of blood.

"I'm good." Buffy returned to the watcher with a grin.

"No lasting injuries on me." Ron commented as he waved his hands in the air.

"Nothing." Willow agreed.

"Good to go." Xander told the man as he looked himself over.

"I'm fine." Hermione replied to the Watcher.

"Good now what went wrong?"

"Simple, giants aren't only magic resistant, but they're at least partly bullet proof as well." Xander complained.

"Yes, and there was no way that we could have known about that beforehand though, because of the fact no one has tried to actually shoot a giant since the invention of the cannon." Hermione informed the Watcher. "Theoretically our attacks should have worked though, the only reason I can think of their being able to resist the firepower we were using would be that the magic in their bodies that makes them resistant to spell fire works in this case here."

"Is there a way around this defense of theirs?" Giles questioned.

"Well we either find some sort of anti magical bullet, or we do something different in fighting them." Xander explained to the watcher. "Of course unless you know where we can find some sort of ant magic bullet or metal that we can melt into bullets it would probably be easier to just some heavier gear. I mean my grenade launcher did hurt them."

"Yes, which means we need to consider heavier ordinance than what we were using on our next attack." Moon Knight suggested to the others.

"That kind of stuff is kind of hard to get." Willow commented from her seat.

"Does that mean you can't get it?" Hermione questioned the redheaded girl with a hint of challenge in her voice.

"I said difficult not impossible." Willow said to the witch. "It will just take a bit more time to get the weapons than it normally would than if it was some of the more basic weapons. Is there anything in the magical world that could be used against these things?"

"Not that I know of," Hermione returned, "if there was I imagine that they would use it when they disable dragons and since they never used anything at the tri-wizard tournament that might have stopped them other than stunners."

"So we have nothing on that side then." Xander said looking slightly disappointed at the lack of potential weapons that they would be able to use against the lumbering monsters.

"So we use technology on them instead of magic." Harry said not seeming to be overly disturbed by this. How long will it take you to get what we need to?"

"A week at most, two too get the really good stuff. Since we don't want people to try and arrest us for it."

"Yeah, you Brits have way too many gun laws. This sort of thing is so much easier to get back in the states." Xander complained earning grins from the others while Giles merely shook his head in disbelief at the teen. "I mean when we were packing all of our gear who would have thought that we would need heavy ordinance of all things."

"Well excuse us for not wanting to blow each other all to bits." Giles grumbled at the teen. "At least we have the decency not to shoot each other all the time and we don't have all of your infamous school shootings to worry about either."

"So says the person with the nickname of Ripper." Willow smirked at the man as she typed away on her computer. "Makes a person wonder if you weren't maybe a little to good with a knife now doesn't it? Hmm, now that is interesting."

"What?"

"The Yakuza have done some tracing recently and have gone through several of my dummy accounts. We may need to prepare something for them so that they don't bother us while we're working."

"I did try to warn you against taking their money." Giles reminded the group.

"We'll worry about them later. Right now you guys need to get back to finding out what you need to about whatever it is that you're working on to take the evil wizard of the land down. While you work on that angle we'll start setting things up so that we can deal with the big bad giants."

"Sounds like a plan, just be sure that we're part of the team that takes them out. I want some payback on them for stepping on me." Harry growled out before he and his friends headed out the door. There were three loud cracks that signaled their disappearance.

"They gone?" Buffy asked Willow the red head checked the monitors and after flipping the screens allowing the monitors to check the area in various spectrums before she nodded her head. "All right, I want you to find out everything that you can about what happened I know they're supposed to be on our side but I don't want to leave anything to chance." Buffy ground out as she began issuing orders. "Angel, you and Xander will deal with that. Willow, you and I are going to watch the werewolves see if we can't find some sort of schedule. Giles I want you to research anything and everything that you can about the giants and see if you can't find a way to hurt them."

"Why that way?"

"Simple, vampires and werewolves can sense each other to a certain extent and I really don't want them to think that we're watching them for a vampire." Buffy explained to her team. "Also werewolves are stuck to the ground level of the forest except on full moons, which means that we have a small window of opportunity to watch them and learn their patterns before something happens."

* * *

Voldemort looked up from where he was consulting a map as Macnair strode into the room. The serpentine wizard frowned at the figure that bowed before him. He wondered what the wizard thought he was doing here. He was supposed to be directing the giants not being here. He looked down at the former executioner and hissed at him. "What are you doing here? You are supposed to be directing the giants." He scolded the kneeling figure.

The wizard bobbed his head toward the Dark Lord. "Forgive me Master, but there was an attack on the giant camp. A small group of fighters attempted to destroy the gurg but were unsuccessful. As near as our trackers can tell there was less than ten of them. The wards alerted the giants to their presence though before any of them managed to get to close to the encampment and there was a fight."

Voldemort chuckled at this, wondering who had been foolhardy enough to try and attack an entire giant encampment with only a handful of fighters. "Really, and what kind of slaughter was it that occurred?" He questioned half heartedly.

"None died on either side my lord." MacNair admitted grudgingly. "They all lived, which should have been impossible for at least two of them."

"How so?" Voldemort questioned with mild curiosity only partially interested in the conversation. He was more interested in looking for the death stick than he was in some fools that had attacked the giants and then run away when they realized that they were outmatched.

"One of them was stepped on by a giant after falling off of the head of one yet somehow he still lived through it all. They destroyed the eye of one of the giants and injured several of the others as well."

"Really?" Voldemort questioned somewhat impressed by that particular feat of magic. "What type of spells did they use on them?" If someone had found a spell strong enough to hurt a giant then he could most likely use that same spell and use it to kill them. He was Lord Voldemort after all and what other wizards could make do some good spells he could perform the same spell and achieve magnificence and once he had the death stick he would be even greater than he was already.

"Yes my Lord, there were loud banging sounds coming from the metal tubes that they were using that hurt the giants."

"Metal tubes?" Voldemort growled out angrily as he began having an idea of what it was that the wizard was talking about.

"Yes my Lord, they threw other pieces of metal with some sort of banishing charm or perhaps it was a rune to make it so that they wouldn't have to put so much of their magic in to items or save time. I am not all that familiar with rune designs and the strange magic's that they used are not something I have heard of. Perhaps you know of the odd magics that they were using my Lord."

"Indeed I know of it." Voldemort said angrily as he twirled his wand in his hand. "No true wizard or witch would dare to sully themselves with those muggle made abominations though. They are using filthy muggle weapons against the giants. Most likely because they are too simple minded, weak, and have no honor when it comes to using true wizarding weapons." Voldemort didn't think that he should tell his minion it was less draining on someone's magic to merely pull on a trigger as opposed to casting some spell. He remembered the monstrosity that came from the muggle world war from school and all of the damage that it had caused.

"They would dare to sully themselves with muggle weapons in a wizard war?" MacNair snarled out angrily. Have they no pride and honor?"

"What can you expect from muggle borns though?" Voldemort questioned his Death Eater. "When they have no respect for what it truly means to be a wizard? Is it any wonder then why we do what we have to too ensure that the true way of life lives on?"

"A most excellent observation my Lord, but what do we do with these muggle borns that have the audacity to fight back?"

"They will be dealt with, have some of the forces that we have prepared to deal with upstarts like these." Voldemort informed the Death Eater with a cold and calculating smirk. They will most likely be surprised when they next try something against my followers.


	8. Chapter 8

Yet another new chapter folks ain't the after pressure of no finals great?

For those who lost the memo I don't own Marvel Comics that would be Disney, BTVS that would be Joss, or Harry Potter that would be JKR. Any questions?

* * *

It was nearly two weeks later that the two groups of heroes met together again. The wizards had brought with them several cauldrons full of bubotuber puss that the magic users assured would cause all sorts of swelling and blisters and might slow the giants down somewhat. The group nodded and quickly replanned their assault. "Alright then the plan will go like this." Willow said as she led the briefing. "We'll apparate into the area an hour before the giants anticipated arrival and begin setting up equipment and a small bunker. Wolverine and Moon Knight as our best and most experienced flyers will use their brooms and dump several cauldrons of the puss onto the giants. While they're distracted from that the rest of us will reveal ourselves and begin to fire at the enemy with our RPG's that we've been hiding in the area for the past couple of days."

"How can we be sure that they'll be there though?" Hermione questioned the redheaded girl.

"Angel went back to his source and we traced the group via satellite again. We also placed a fairly powerful homing device that helps as well. It emits a signal pulse once every 12 hours and has yet to be discovered, or be completely corrupted by the giants magical energy." Willow explained to the other girl. "The target zone is near a lake, so the giants will have to stop there just so they can refresh themselves."

"Meaning they might let their guards down for a few minutes if they're particularly eager to get their drinks." Ron noted as he looked at the map. Particularly if it was somewhere between a 1000 yards to a mile away from the water."

"Correct, in fact depending on how tired and hungry they are means we could actually be looking at having the gurg be one of the first ones that we hit." Willow said optimistically.

"You know that we're not that lucky right?" Xander questioned his friend.

"Quiet I'm trying to strengthen the good vibes." Willow told him. A look at the redhead showed that she didn't believe that they would really be that lucky either and was merely trying to make it seem as if she thought that they might be that lucky.

"What about the magic users? We know that there's at least one of them traveling with the giants. After the other night they might have more of them on hand in case we try anything stupid like this or at the very least have some sort of alternative backup plan to deal with an attack like we're planning."

"Unfortunately we have no idea just who or what it is that they might have ready to hit us with." Willow admitted to the group. "After this we're going to have to hope that it's nothing to nasty, but even if we have to withdraw from them after the first couple of passes I'm fairly sure that we can trim the numbers down. Who knows may they really won't think anybody is that stupid."

"After this I think that it would be best for us to leave the giants alone win or lose. If we don't they'll find a way to hit us because we keep on repeating our target choice." Ron warned them. "If it wasn't for the fact that these are some of his heavy hitters I would say not to even bother with it now."

"Agreed, but they need to be taken out soon they've been causing a lot of damage in the countryside since Riddle recruited them. We've made up a list of other allies and potential allies that the Wicked Wizard of the West may have his claws into. We figure that we should visit the ones we know for sure and the ones that we're not sure about know that we're hunting anyone working with him."

"Alright then, it sounds like we have a plan," Harry said to the others, "let's see if we can't plan for any other attacks that we might not be thinking of and stop them before they become a problem." The others nodded as they began planning what their next move was going to be and how they could best execute it without leaving themselves out in the open.

* * *

Ron sighed as he walked into the map room they left in 20 minutes and he wanted to insure that he knew the entire area that they would be hitting and went to see if he could find a small map they he could maybe use while out on the field. He walked into the room that had all of the various maps and information that wasn't used in a briefing and headed toward a table. The wizard picked up a folder and began flipping through it and stopped in shock as he saw a familiar picture glaring back out at him. "Greyback," the wizard growled and began paying more attention to the file. The boy's jaw dropped as he realized that he was holding a dossier on the werewolf. All of the information about him was written in here including photos of his home, pack, and his schedule.

The red head looked at the numbers on the schedule and seethed as he began cursing in Egyptian. According to this the werewolf would be heading off in about an hour to begin hunting people as a snatcher. He didn't know why the others were more concerned about the giants when they had Greyback in the palm of their hands. Ron thought back to his brother's wedding and the scars that he was now forced to wear. The redhead memorized the location where the wolf was supposed to be soon before he tossed the file to the side and headed toward the armory. The boy quickly switched the armor piercing rounds that he had loaded up with for silver forged rounds. Ron then picked up the sniper rifle and slipped out of the building hoping that no one would notice him leave. He looked at his friends who were busy planning the last bits of the plan before he slipped away he wanted to work with them but this was more important as far as he was concerned. Besides if they struck in two different places it might make the Death Eaters worry some more as they couldn't know if it was the same group or two different attacks. He knew that he should take backup but to him this was personal. Besides who better than a man with the memories of Mark Spector could hunt down a werewolf. This was a job he was suited for and the sooner it was done the better off they would all be. He thought to himself as he drew his mask on and pulled the hood of his cloak up.

"Where's Ron?" Hermione questioned worriedly as she noticed that their friend wasn't anywhere around and it was nearly time to go.

"I don't know, he was here just a few minutes ago he was checking some of the maps last I saw him." Buffy said waving in the direction of the record room where all of the information on their various strikes was kept.

Hermione nodded her thanks and walked into the room, the redhead seemed to have left already left the room. Her eyes drifted to the ground where some pictures had been dropped. The purple haired mutant ninja witch sighed as she bent down and picked up the dropped pages. One of these days the boy was going to have to learn how to pick up after himself she thought in annoyance. Looking down at the retrieved items they weren't pictures of the area that they were planning on attacking as she had suspected in fact rather than a mountain range this was all set up for a forest. Looking down she saw that it was an encampment of some sort where a group of around a hundred give or take some were hiding. She looked around at the image and saw that some notes had been added at the bottom. Werewolf camp: Sherwood Forest: Alpha Feniris Greyback. Along with this was several different routes in different colors that various members of the werewolf pack used to get from place to place. Highlighted was the route of Greyback used everydaay.

"Oh Ron." She muttered as she turned to get the others and warn them about what was happening with the last member of the team.

"Alright, so while the two of you are buzzing them we'll back you up and take them down from our positions." Xander told Harry as they finalized the plan for the final time on a map. "It'll be the job of you two to keep them distracted while we use the big guns on them. If they do start to get too close to us Spiderwoman will start firing some of her venom blasts, and those should at least slow them down long enough for us to put some distance between us. Just remember that she'll probably be in the back if not on top of them so you'll have to be careful with the puss or you could hit her."

"Right," Harry said as he reached for his Wolverine mask. "Is everybody ready?"

"Actually we have a problem." Hermione said as she stalked into the room her entire body glowing with pink energy.

"What happened?" Wolverine questioned his friend as he pulled the mask over his face.

"Ron is what happened." The witch returned with a snarl.

"What's he done now?"

"Oh, he only left after everything was planned out. He found this and couldn't resist getting some revenge." She said as she showed them the picture along with Greyback's schedule.

Harry frowned as he looked at the information that was before them. "This is bad."

"Is it going to affect the operation?" Xander questioned them.

"No, we should be alright, we'll be a bit short handed on distracting the giants but it's doable. Do you think that we should scrap the mission and try and help him though? I mean this could upset a lot of things that we have planned for tonight. I will have to work extra hard to dodge the giants though since it will only be me and I'll probably have to spell some of the cauldrons in order to hit enough giants."

"No, everything is already in place and we know for sure where the giant clan is going to be tonight. If were to try and change things we would have to scrap the entire operation." Willow explained to them.

"Damn." Wolverine said as he tossed his drink at the wall in annoyance. "When I get my hands on Ron, and am sure that he's alive I'm going to rip his arms off and beat him with them. Maybe if I do that it will knock a bit of sense into him."

"Doubtful, but you're welcome to try." Hermione told her friend with a smirk that caused him to let out a low growl of annoyance.

"Fine let's get going then we have to make sure we take those giant out this time then." Buffy said before the two started trying to outdo each other or something.

The others nodded and headed for the apparition point that they had set up inside the warehouse. A loud crack and a moment later they were all gone. Giles sighed at the group before he began clearing things away so that he could begin working on a med bay when the group did get in. He sincerely hoped that the group didn't have as many wounds as they did last time. If it had been anyone other than Angel and Harry that had been severely wounded then he doubted that things would have been as good as they had last time. He knew that they had prepared as much as they could last but they had still failed he hoped this time their attack worked better.

The group reappeared with a popping sound in the mountains. "Alright, the giants should be passing by here in about forty-five minutes and will probably try and stop there for water. We have that long to get everything set up before they get here."

The others nodded and began setting up the rocket launchers that they had acquired and the cauldrons with the puss. "So you think these things will work on them?" Psylocke questioned.

"I hope so, otherwise we're going to have to tie blocks of C4 together and hope that they walk on it or we can trigger it when we throw it at them and hope the blast is big enough to hurt them." Punisher said as they prepared themselves for the upcoming fight.

The group watched as the figures made their way from out of the mountains. "Psylocke you better get started." Black Widow ordered to the telepath.

"Understood, cloaking us now." The mutant ninja said as she sat down Indian style and closed her eyes and focused on the minds of the approaching army. There were many concealing spells, but the knowledge and skill to use those spells were not something that the group had. Therefore they were forced to rely on different methods of concealment. Fortunately for them they were all skilled at hiding in plain sight and the only one of them that would truly need the mental protection would be Wolverine since he would be coming at the giants from the air. They all watched silently as Wolverine made his attack run against the giants. A rod had been placed crossways on the broom so that he could balance the cauldrons with the puss on them.

Wolverine narrowed his eyes as he observed the group. He noted which one of the giants appeared to fit the B.S.U profile that Punisher had made for them. Moving his broom toward the giant he hoped that Psylocke could keep the illusion around him going for a few more minutes. He was now over the giant and had to admit that the Californian had a point if this was the Gurg then he completely fit the profile that had been made for the leader. Shrugging he tipped his first two cauldrons over as he wanted to make sure that he got this particular giant. The Gurg was their primary target; all of the others were currently secondary ones unless they proved themselves otherwise. He then moved on and began to let the puss just fly from the remaining cauldrons that were still hooked to his broom. As the last one emptied he then summoned the ones that Ron would have carried and watched as they splashed harmlessly against the chests of some of the giants mainly splattering against their clothes.

* * *

MacNair nodded to himself as they directed the giants toward the small pond that would serve as a watering hole for the monsters. Soon he could head to the Ministry and inform the ones that the Dark Lord had left in charge that once again all was clear and that there was nothing here that was a threat to them. After that he would head to the best wizard pub that he knew of and get himself a nice long drink. Probably would need to get a bath before he gave his report though. The towering oafs smelled almost as bad as the dragon dung fertilizer that Sprout always smelled of.

The dark wizard's thoughts of Hogwarts, teachers, and baths was interrupted though when the gurg began howling in pain. He dodged to the side just barely dodging the foot that came hurtling down. He looked up and saw that the giant was howling in pain and waving his arms back and forth. His flailing form was also hitting his fellow giants some of whom were also beginning to yell in pain. He looked around and suddenly saw a small figure flying above the heads of the giants he heard the clanging sound of several cauldrons falling to the ground as they landed off to the side. Whoever was up there had obviously struck the giants with some sort of potion and were going to leave hoping that the giants killed each other in the confusion. The wizard snarled as he dodged back and forth from the giants. He quickly apparated off to the side away from the lumbering oafs. As he reappeared he noted that the other members of his team had also joined him. "Take that fool hardy Gryffindor down!" He ordered to his Death Eater team.

* * *

Multiple colored blasts erupted from the force on the ground and flew in the direction of the wizard that had managed to injure the giants. Wolverine grinned as several light beams began coming at him along with the giants that were now swing clubs and fists at him it was making for an interesting bit of flying. He hoped that the others appreciated him playing target for all of these guys though.

"All right, he has their attention let's take them down." Willow commanded to the group. The others nodded and grabbed up the weapons that they had positioned for this. The group was using two different types of rocket launchers against the giants. The Russian made RPG-29 Vampir and RPG-7 were made to deal with thick armored tanks and should blast though the magically enhanced thick skinned giants. Five missiles erupted from their launchers and struck the Gurg. The resulting explosion was deafening. When the smoke and flames cleared they all saw that the monstrosity that had been leading the giants topple to the ground bleeding heavily from the hits it had just taken. It's heavy helmet now with a large hole in it.

"Primary is incapacitated move on to secondary targets." Punisher said as they all switched targets from the weakened lead giant to the other members of the clan. The tactic was really quite simple they would systematically destroy each of the warrior giants until they finally got the message and decided to leave. Buffy and Angel both stood up carrying their weapons and rushed forward getting close up shots of the behemoths. As the explosive rounds impacted the pair began reloading the weapons and firing again the combination of their attacks taking the giants down. The giants that did try and focus on the RPG bearing heroes were more focused on the fast moving pair with super strength as opposed to the stationary ones in the bunker. Wolverine was also making it difficult for them as he was buzzing the giants and the Death Eaters keeping their attention on him while the others went about the business of eliminating the giants.

Wolverine snarled as a spell nearly snapped the broom he was using in half. It wasn't to bad when they aimed at him he could heal the broom couldn't. Not about to let something like that go unanswered he cut the power to the broom and allowed himself to fall he extended his claws and hooked into the skin of a giant and allowed himself to continue falling leaving a small red mark to trail down the leg of one of the giants. As he landed in front of the group of wizards he grinned ferally at them. "Hey, miss me?" He questioned before he lunged at them. The first one he approached he clawed the face off of. The second he gutted he ducked under the spell fire and summoned a pair of knives from his bracelets and threw them at two different Death Eaters who's cries of pain and fear were silenced as the blades tore through their masks. The white masks really made great targets when they were surrounded by the black of the Death Eaters robes. Wolverine noted to himself as he turned to see how many were left. He turned to see the Death Eater that had been leading the pack conjure several wicked looking daggers and sent them flying at him.

Wolverine grinned as he extended his claws and crossed them in from of his face as he watched the blades crash into him. The ones that would have sliced into his face bounced off his extended claws.

* * *

MacNair smirked as he conjured an ax, it was just like the one that he used when he was sent to dispose of creatures. He figured that the creature before him that had giant claws at the best was some sort of half breed monstrosity that had somehow slipped past most of the screenings. That meant that he would be more than justified in killing it though since such obviously dangerous creatures weren't allowed to be around normals magical. He hefted the ax before he turned to look at where the downed figure would be. He blinked in surprise and took a step back in shocked surprise though when he saw that the figure that he had banished all of the deadly daggers at was not only still standing but was casually yanking the deadly blades out of his body. The Death Eater let out a gasp though when he saw that the wounds on the creature were healing over as if they were never there. Not even transformed werewolves healed that fast when non silver weapons were used against them. The Death Eater took a good look at the monstrosity that had attacked them. It was a bit shorter than your average wizard with shoulders that were quiete a bit broader than any he had ever seen. The figure wore odd skin tight clothes that made it seemed even more demonic than it already was. Deciding to stop the creature before it finished healing he swung his ax at the creature hoping to finish it off with a quick stroke. The creature almost casually caught the haft of his blade before it could hit him.

"Please Bub did you really think that was going to work?" Wolverine questioned the Death Eater as he held the weapon. He used the claws of his other hand to slice through the handle. He smirked as the Death Eater backed away from him. He made a show of inhaling. "Bub, I can smell yer fear from here." He growled as he tossed the ax head around in his hand. "I don't know what ya thought was gonna happen here, but I think it's time someone hit ya with a hard dose of reality. Ya push people around enough times sooner or later yer gonna find someone that pushes back a lot harder than you do. Tonight ya've found the someone that's gonna push back." He tossed the ax head overhis sholder catching a Death Eater that was trying to sneak up behind him. "Trust me bub, when I push back ya don't get up all that easy." Wolverine promised the wizard.

"We'll see monster. Incindio!" The Death Eater blustered as he fired a fire curse at the creature. Wolverine grunted as the flames covered his arms but continued to slowly stalk towards the Death Eater. "Die!" The wizard shouted fearfully as he fired a cutting curse that bounced off the claws that were extended. The Death Eater raised his wand to fire another spell when he ran out of time. Wolverine had taken another swipe at the Death Eater. MacNair howled in agony as he watched the hand holding his wand fall down beside him. He fell to his knees in pain as he realized that he had failed. The figure looked up into the eyes of death and wondered why the figure looked so familiar to him. Not bothering with wondering he fumbled with something at his belt and grinned in relief as he felt the tug of a portkey.

Wolverine glared at the place that the MacNair had been moments ago. He had almost had him, but the wizard had managed to escape him before he could finish him off. Snarling the mutant turned to look for the others. He saw that the giants were making a slow retreat with ten of their number lying on the ground dead from the various rockets that had struck them in various places. "Well?"

"Mission accomplished," Spiderwoman said as she joined the mutant. "They lost a handful of giants and some wizards. If we hurry we might be able to back Moon Knight up on his solo mission.

"Not happening darling, we could cause more troubles than he needs or distract him when he needs to stay focused. As much as I hate ta say it he's going ta have ta be on is own fer the rest o this mission." Wolverine looked toward Psylocke who gave a stiff nod of agreement with what had just been said. If their friend couldn't wait for them then they had to plan for things as if he wasn't there.

"Understood," Spiderwoman said accepting the choice that the mutant had made on his friend. She knew how hard that kind of decision must have cost him. Hopefully they wouldn't have to plan a rescue mission for the redhead.

"Alright, let's check to see if they're all dead or if one of them somehow beat the odds and managed to survive going up against the Wolverine." Black Widow said as she tossed her smoking weapon off to the side. "Who knows, maybe we'll be able to get some worthwhile information from them.

"That's if I managed to leave enough of them around." Wolverine said with a feral smirk as he allowed his claws to return to their housings in his arm. "C'mon, maybe they ain't all bled themselves to death yet." The mutant said as he led the group toward the fallen Death Eaters. The group looked at the group of fallen dark wizards and found one that hadn't yet bled out and was still conscious. Black Widow looked at the fallen wizard before giving Wolverine a knowing look.

"What? He's still alive, and ya never told me that ya wanted one to interrogate or I would of made sure that he wasn't in so many pieces." The mutant defended as they looked at the Death Eater that he had cut up.

"You should have considered it then." Black Widow returned to the mutant as she did her best to slow the blood flow down. The red head then turned toward the Death Eater. "Tell me about your numbers scum, how many of you are there in these groups?"

"I'll never tell you anything mudblood filth." The wizard spat out.

"I do not have time for you to try and be brave." The young woman told the Death Eater in a matter of fact tone. "If you do not explain things to me then I will let Wolverine here finish the job on you that he started." The mutant grinned at this and let the prisoner see his razor sharp canines.

"Fine, the Death Eater exclaimed, "just keep that psycho away from me."

"Good, now what are the numbers that your master is using?"

"The Dark Lord's power is enormous." The wizard boasted to the group. "His powerful vengeance shall rain down upon you and smite you down. All whom oppose the Dark Lord shall tremble before his might."

"Did we ask you for a sermon?" Psylocke asked angrily as she activated her psychic knife. "This blade is the formation of all of my psychic energy little wizard. With it I could make you as pitiful and pathetic as those that have been kissed by the dementors unless you start cooperating with us."

"Fine," the wizard grumbled wondering what kind of position that he was going to be put in.

"Now what are your master's numbers?" Black Widow asked once again. "I warn you now that if you waste my time again I shall let one of them deal with you." She said nodding toward the mutants that were glaring at the wizard.

"Ya've been soft enough on the scum bag as it is." Punisher noted from where he was keeping a lookout. "I say we let the runt start slicing off body parts until he decides to tell us what we need to know."

"Works fer me." Wolverine said.

"You want to talk now, or do I let them loose on you?" Black Widow commented looking their captive in the eye to show she was not bluffing.

"Just keep the half breeds away and I'll talk." The man promised.

"Fine, numbers."

"The Dark Lord's numbers are in the hundreds." The wizard stated proudly. He has some two hundred Death Eaters awaiting his commands and there is three times that many, that are loyal and will come if the Dark Lord asks them."

"What kind of creatures is he trying to recruit from other than the giants which have obviously been stopped for the moment." The Black Widow continued to question not letting the numbers that they were against disturb her.

"You think those moronic beasts were a real part of the Dark Lord's army?" The wizard scoffed at the group of vigilantes. "They're merely the part of the army that signed on first. They were meant to be the advance team or strikers before others were sent in. Soon all those that know magic will side with us and answer the call that we send. For the past ten years the Dark Lords faithful have ensured that they would have no one to turn to but him. Now when he asks for their aide they come in all shapes, breeds, and sizes. They come to allow the true masters of the world to rise and take their rightful place in the world."

"It's like listening to one of Magneto's Acolytes, can we please go now before I get bored." Wolverine asked the rest of his team hopefully.

"Yes, we have learned a rough idea of their numbers and some of their short term plans. It is doubtful that this one will tell us anything else of use." Black Widow replied to him. "We thank you for your cooperation; your aide has been most enlightening." The young woman told their captive.

"When next we meet I'll make you beg for death mudblood." The wizard swore his eyes blazing with pain and fury.

Black Widow merely chuckled at the threat. "I think not, since we shall not meet again in this world." The hacker turned spy said as she rammed her fist into his throat killing him.

"Nice shot," Psylocke complimented the girl before they all joined together and disappeared in a series of loud cracks before they could be attacked by anyone or anything.

* * *

Moon Knight grinned beneath his mask as he saw Greyback come out of the brush. The information that the others had was spot on it seemed. Not only was the werewolf here, but he was completely alone. This meant that he was fair game as far as the masked vigilante was concerned. He pulled his sniper rifle out and aimed at the creep that had caused more than a few problems for his brother after attacking him.

He looked down the sight and quietly blew the knees out of the insane werewolf. The figure that had been confidently walking to the apparition point crumpled to the ground as his knees were destroyed. Moon Knight placed the gun down and then jogged toward the downed werewolf. He wanted to have a nice and long conversation with this animal before he finally killed him. It was kind of tempting to turn the mad dog over to Remus and his brother but he couldn't take the chance that in doing so Greyback wouldn't somehow escape. This way would be so much easier for him to do anyways. Besides those two were to soft hearted and noble to take advantage of having him at their mercy. He drew a pistol and fired a shot into each shoulder, as he got close enough to the werewolf. "We need to talk." He growled menacingly, as he towered over wounded wolf.

The monster that people told horror stories about merely whined in pain as he rolled on the ground in agony. The mighty Fenir Greyback, the turner of children, leader of the largest pack of Britain's werewolves was nothing now that someone had taken the time to hunt him down and stop him. The hunter had become the prey and the creature hadn't even been aware of the sudden shift until it was to late.

"You won't get away with this; my pack shall avenge me for this." The werewolf growled at him through pain filled gasps. "We have lived our entire lives being hunted by those like you. And if they don't…"

"If they don't it'll be because the Dark Lord you serve told them to back off. "The Moon Knight told him harshly cutting the werewolf off from whatever else he might have said. "You also have no idea just who or what it is that I am and to assume otherwise is dangerous. I don't know what it is that you think that you're doing by this little game of yours, but I think that you should know that as of now you slave of the Dark Lord will no longer be around to change things. Once I learn everything that I can about the things that you do I'll kill you."

Greyback snarled at him weakly causing the Moon Knight to chuckle at the weak piece of defiance being thrown at him. "Please, we both know that there's no chance of you healing and that's the only way that those bullet holes are going to heal in time. So, unless you have a way to transform then you aren't getting away anytime soon. All that means is that all of your threats are nothing more than your death song." Greyback swallowed nervously at the certainty that the masked figure said that. "Let's start with what other creatures have agreed to serve the Dark Lord shall we?"

"And if I don't?" The werewolf challenged his captor.

"Then we see how long you can stand to have this silver knife in you." Moon Knight said coldly as he drew a large ornamental dagger from beneath his cloak. "Personally I hope that you want to do this the hard way, because that means I can use this thing on you over and over again. So what's it going to be? We know that you're behind your master when it comes to leading the talks with other creatures. Just who all has he got?"

The werewolf merely glared and snapped his filed teeth at the human holding him. "What do you think will happen when that hits me boy that it will begin to melt my skin like muggles believe? Only idiots truly believe in those foolish little tales. You obviously know nothing of my kind and that shall be your doom when I feast on your bones."

Moon Knight chuckled at this. "Suit yourself." The hero said as he plunged the blade into the werewolf's bicep. The man howled in pain as his skin began to hiss. "Surprised?" Moon Knight questioned smugly to his prisoner. "Well let me tell you a few things about silver and werewolves pal. It's not just the silver that hurts cursed shapeshifters. It has to be blessed silver to hurt your kind otherwise it doesn't do all that much to you other than irritate your skin." The white cloaked figure leaned over to the werewolf and hissed. "You have no defenses here against this tonight. You're going to die a long and painful death werewolf." As he said this, the young man jerked the blade out and traced it over the werewolf's skin causing small blisters to start bubbling onto his skin. "Now who has your master gotten to join forces with him? He questioned again, as the silver blade caused the skin around his eye to close shut.

"I shall never tell you, for I am of the faithful. My people shall rise above those that have trodden on us for so many years and take our place at the side of the only one who has ever showed any type of appreciation for my kind."

"Add in the fact he lets you act like a little psycho on whoever he wants doesn't hurt to much either does it?" Moon Knight returned with contempt. "It must be a real honor to you to be able to act like his very own little attack dog for him." He spat with contempt at the figure on the ground. "you know if Lupin were the werewolf version of Martin Luther King then that would make you the Malcolm X of your kind."

"Who?" The werewolf asked in confusion on the odd names that were being spoken.

"Unless you've been to America you wouldn't understand." The figure said waving the question off. He couldn't believe he was talking about civil right leaders to a monster like this. 'Sometimes having all the memories and skills of a bloody American could be a real pain in the arse.' He thought to himself as he looked down on his captive.

He jabbed the blade into Greyback's arm and pinned it to the ground and smirked as the werewolf howled again. "How long do you reckon it would take for some of these coins to go right through you?" He asked as he pulled a couple of coins out from a pouch on his belt. "How long do you reckon you can take it before it gets to you?" He questioned maliciously as he placed a coin on the palm of the pinned hand and waited as steam began rising from the hand.

"Alright, fine I'll talk," the werewolf agreed, just take those things off of me." Moon Knight nodded as he withdrew the dagger and then turned the hand over causing the coin to fall out of the small indention on the skin it had created. Both of the wounds were slightly charred, as if someone had used a brand or a blow torch on the werewolf.

"Talk." The vigilante commanded.

"Some vampires came to him not too long ago. They offered him their services and help in finding others that would work with him. In return he would help them deal with some people that had been causing them problems."

"What kind of others?"

"Demons and vampires mainly," the werewolf explained, "there are a few freak mudbloods as well that have agreed to work with the Dark Lord as well."

"He's using muggleborns?"

"Yes, they agreed to cast powerful magics in exchange for their lives most likely. With the help of the vampires he is gathering an army that none shall be able to challenge. You think that hurting me helps your cause? The Dark Lord shall find out about my loyalty and reward my pack for their loyalty and they shall rise in favor. My kind shall always be amongst his favorites. They shall hunt you down and show the world what happens when you attack a true child of the moon."

"No, he'll only know that you went and blabbed and then died." The figure above him said as he drew his gun and fired several bullets into his captive. Not taking the chance that he might survive he had used his silver rounds this time so that they would melt away anything else that. Moon Knight took a deep breath as he looked down at the shuddering figure before raising his hood and disappearing with a large crack.

* * *

Ron groaned as he reappeared in front of the warehouse he just knew that when Hermione saw him that she was going to light into him for going off alone like he had. Maybe he'd be lucky and they were still out dealing with the giants and he wouldn't have to worry about her using that psychic knife of her on him for a while. He thought hopefully as he took his mask off and walked into the base. He nodded to Giles as he grabbed a butterbeer out of the fridge and found a seat so that he could begin going over his various weapons.

Giles watched the young man sit down and was tempted to talk with him but thought that it would be better if those that knew him the most were discuss his lack of teamwork they would be the ones he was more likely to listen to. So he held his tongue and decided to wait for the others and see how it would all play out before he made a move. The Watcher was startled from his thoughts though as several new cracks were heard and the dirty and grimy figures of the others trudged in. They nodded to the other occupants and went about the task of disarming themselves. Giles could only shake his head as he saw all the weapons that the group unloaded onto a table.

"Did you have fun?" Hermione questioned her friend darkly, keeping her back turned to the redheaded male.

"If you call torturing information out of a werewolf with silver fun then yeah I guess I did." Ron returned to the witch. "Maybe I can tell Bill all about it when I see him next time." He grumbled at her.

Hermione nodded her head in acceptance. Greyback had been a personal matter for Ron. Hopefully he wouldn't make a habit of running off whenever a new target came up that he wanted to destroy. 'Although there was a chance that if he had the chance he might take off for the Malfoy's.' The witch thought to herself. Hopefully he and the others would keep their impulses down for a while though so that they could do their work.

"So how was the mission?" Giles questioned the group, as he wandered around passing out bandages to those that needed them. The Watcher frowned as he saw the blood on Harry but since he had no cuts on him there was really no reason to worry about him.

"Fine, we came we saw we conquered." Xander said with a smug grin.

"Well that's good, what were the numbers?" Giles asked, as he took over the informal debriefing that they were having.

"Lots of giants, and a handful of Death Eaters." Buffy responded to the Watcher. "We managed to kill or disable the entire giant raiding party and Harry here managed to terminate all the Death Eaters except for the leader that managed to slip away."

"And he could still die from blood loss." Harry informed the others.

"I see, then all targets were dealt with on your end then?"

"That's is correct, we were ready for them this time. By striking at them before they managed to set up their wards we managed to catch them by surprise." Black Widow explained.

"Any injuries?"

"Minor scratches and weapon burns appear to be the most severe damage that any of us took and with the healing spells and potions we have those should be dealt with in a few hours at most." Hermione explained.

"Very good. How about yourself Mr. Weasley, did you have any difficulties tonight?" Giles asked.

"Not at all," Ron said, "Greyback appeared right when you said he would and after disabling him I managed to ah, convince him to talk."

"Very good then. What's done is done. As I only run the medical side and debriefing side of things you will have to discuss you desertion with Willow as she was team leader for this mission. So what did you learn from him?"

"Their talking with vampires demons and muggleborns to help out in the fighting."

"Why muggleborns?" Buffy questioned with a frown at that bit of information. "That doesn't make any sense, he would loose the support of his backers if he let some of them live."

"I don't know, that's what he called them though." Ron said with a shrug as he thought back to the conversation he had with the werewolf. "No wait a minute, he called them freak mudbloods."

"Freaks?" Harry questioned with a growl.

"Yeah I'm sure of it." Ron agreed.

"That is a bit off," Hermione agreed with her friend, "in the wizarding world the word freak is usually for half breeds or beings that control rare magic's like hags, or some of the non-human magic users. Muggleborns though are rarely called freaks though unless they do something that is unheard of with magic. These unusually events are usually explained away with a non human bloodlines though."

"If they are dabbling their connections with vampires and demons it's possible that they have come across a creature that can perform some wandless magic of some sort and that's what he saw." Harry pointed out to his friend.

Hermione nodded though she looked a bit uncertain at the leap that he had made. "It's plausible, she admitted, "but the different magical types so rarely interact though. It's why the wizarding world deals mostly with werewolves and wiccan and ritual magic users deal with vampires. The two worlds just so rarely interact its why there is so little information about the other worlds. The coincidence of dark magic users from both sides teaming up so quickly after we joined up would be astronomical. There would need to be some sort of trigger for that sort of thing to happen." Hermione got a faraway look on her face as she tried to come up with the answer to the problem before them.

"And we don't know of anything that could have triggered that sort of change yet do we?" Willow questioned as she began pondering the problem herself.

"Exactly," The mutant agreed in irritation that there was no obvious answer. "We know the last attack we did wasn't the trigger because quite frankly they kicked our asses the last time around we went head to head."

"And they wouldn't want to mess with something that as far as they know still works." Angel noted to the others. "In fact it would have made them even smugger over having beaten the muggle technology with their magic."

"Exactly, so something else must have triggered them into recruiting from the vampires and demons." Hermione agreed with the vampire. "The only question is what set them off?"

"It could be almost anything," Giles admitted to the group with a worried look on his face. "From what we do know of him it is very likely that the wizards could have planned on recruiting from them in the very beginning. They did originally talk with the giants and werewolves after all perhaps this is just the next stage in their recruiting.

"Makes sense actually, they've gotten a majority of the people that they're going to from recruiting from those races. They can just leave a few people to relay orders or have one of their own kind acts as a messenger while the rest can go to other races and start all over there again." Angel observed as he tried to piece what the wizards were doing.

"Yeah, that would work out well." Xander agreed as he tried to consider anything else that they might have missed that could give them some insight into the enemy.

"What else do we know though?" Giles questioned them, amazed that the group was able to piece together so much from just questioning two of these Death Eater wizards. It showed how much that they had all changed since Halloween.

"That they plan on recruiting and soon, which means that right now they want to build up their numbers and then they plan on doing something." Ron said from his seat. "Right now he needs or wants an army for something big."

"But why do they need to build their numbers up? They already have control of the magical government in this country." Giles asked them. "Why do they need more numbers?"

"Because they want to rule as monsters openly and they can't do that till they have the numbers to enforce what they want and beat down any kind of resistance." Xander explained to the Watcher.

"Explain." Giles told the boy.

"It's actually fairly simple Giles." Ron then explained for Xander. "They want to rule openly, but to do that they need an army to enforce their ideas on things. At the moment there are only a few people in control not enough to really rule. So in order to get their way with that they're planning they need to deal with some other things before they publicly declare themselves."

"What they said," Wolverine agreed, "for all we know they could even plan on taking over the regular world government as well."

"And how are they planning on doing that?" Giles questioned the boys.

Xander looked at the others who nodded at him before he began ticking points off on his fingers. "First they're having all of the muggleborn magicals executed for whatever reason that they can think of. By doing this they're taking away some of the numbers that a resistance might have. Second the recruitment of various things that will fight for them. You know the werewolves, vamps, giants, and whatever else they can convince to help them out. Third they're holding a lot of kids hostage at the school stopping people from doing anything as well. Fifth they're rounding anyone up that they find talking about the Darth Vader wannabe. Sixth they've got the Dementors getting all X rated and groiny in their activities. This is causing all sorts of depression fumes in the air taking even more of the fight out of people as it's simply wearing their spirits down as effectively as depressants. Add it all together and what do you get Giles?"

"A country ruled by complete fear," Giles said, "add in the fact that the ruler just returned from the dead and no one would be willing to go up against him."

"Precisely, Xander agreed, it's the U.S.S.R all over again complete with the Gestapo. No offense Widow."

"None taken, the only difference in this case is that there's no one fighting them right now." Willow noted.

"As if this bloody war wasn't confusing enough you have to add in all of this." Ron complained as he tried to consider all of the complications that this brought them. "So what do we do now?"

"Hit them publicly as often as we can and hope for a domino effect for the moment." Xander told him bluntly. "Until you guys do whatever it is that you're doing to make it so that we can kill your big bad we're stuck just slowing them down."

"Well that and killing all of his minions. Buffy pointed out to her friend who nodded his head in agreement with that.

"Right, so we better get back to working on that while your lot finds another target to hit. Call us if you need us." Ron told them as he finally pulled himself back to his feet.

"Look on the bright side, thanks to the information we got off of their grunts we managed to learn some of their short term goals and how they're going about them. That's got to be worth something." Buffy said trying to cheer the group of magic users up.

"We'll think of something," Angel promised as he went into the back to think and consider their options.

"I guess we better go, we have other things we need to be working on." Harry said as he realized that they now had to return to the painfully slow task of combing through records to find Founders objects and Voldemort's history. Giles and Willow would make the task move a lot faster unfortunately they couldn't take the chance of having them in the know. The fewer people that knew what had to be done the less likely that Voldemort would find out about them knowing his little secret. The three wand wavers headed out and disappeared with loud cracks to the tent that they were currently living at. Moving quickly they packed the tent and moved deeper into the woods where they would then pop in and out of place a few more times before they would find some new place to rest.


	9. Chapter 9

Bah had to rewrite half of this twice because of a bad computer plug. If that hadn't happened this would have been ready Nov 25.

I actually updated this story can you believe it? Since I've been gone i wish I could say that I have since gained the rights to Harry Potter Marvel and BTVS. Heck I wish I had the rights to just one of the unfortunately I can't they belong to JKR, Marvel/Disney, and Joss/Mutant Academy. Thanks for reading.

* * *

Voldemort scowled as he listened to the report made by the armless Death Eater. This was the third such strike his forces had suffered by the mysterious figures since they had appeared. The scaled wizard dismissed the wizard waving his wand he replaced the destroyed limbs with bronze recreations. He ignored the thanks as he tuned to stare deep into the flames of the fireplace.

Thanks to the bugling of his followers he appeared to be unable to control the people and the uprisings were embarrassing. First there had been the explosion through the Ministry of Magic that had destroyed several key offices and easily controllable wizards and witches. Next had been the twin pronged attack that had destroyed his giants and killed Greyback. When Bella had returned a few minutes ago to tell him of the fate of the feral werewolf leader he had been shocked, added in with this and he was quickly losing control of the war here. Both of those losses had hurt him in ways that he did not like to think about. Without the giants he was stuck with nothing to lay waste to large amounts of area. They would have been crucial to any prolonged assault as they could take multiple spells before they were stopped. The loss of Greyback meant that he had lost his strongest supporter within the werewolf community. The wolfman had a rather unique hold over a majority of the werewolves in Britain, with only a few brave ones like Remus Lupin daring to defy him. Voldemort had doubts as to whether Greyback's second was capable of holding the werewolves to his cause. Scabior had never overly impressed him as a leader and he doubted that there were any others that he could get to do the job. Add in the rather brutal manner that Greyback had died, and it had many of the werewolves openly doubting his agreeing to protect them. All of that without counting Potter's mass breakout earlier in the year.

Despite his losses he had to admit to having a certain amount of appreciation and respect for this group's ability to cause the maximum amount of carnage to his forces. Voldemort had to admit that these people whoever they were had caused him a large amount of loss and embarrassment. While it was true that their first assault had failed, the second one had actually caused even more damage to his forces which made him wondering if the first attack hadn't merely been a test of the defenses. He had thought he had solved the problem by adding new guards, but somehow they had known exactly what was going on and were prepared for the guards.

The Dark Lord needed something to counter the losses before any others got the bright idea to resist him, or his followers faltered in their belief in his abilities and skills to lead them and they ran away or challenged him. Right now was a crucial time in his operations and he couldn't have people leaving before he had complete control over the country. He still had plans to deal with Potter before the powerful, if somewhat unskilled boy reappeared from wherever it was that he was hiding. He needed something to counter these costumed fools before they destroyed everything that he had planned. What he needed were warriors, not like his Death Eaters who were fighters he needed people that could face down anything. With the mudbloods changing the rules he had to change as well or he would lose everything that he had fought for.

As he stared into the flames he remembered some of the things that he had learned in travels across the world. He recalled that iin following the magical that he had that he had interacted with seeral beings some powerful some not. It was they that had introduced him to the world of even stronger and darker magic than what he had learned from some of the most powerful of wizards and spellbooks. Within the hidden layers of the muggle world there was another magical society, a supernatural society that housed many powerful beings and creatures. If he could reconnect with that part of the world he could find the right ones and then he would deal with these problems.

Decision made he stalked out of Malfoy Manor, the various Death Eaters bowing as he passed by them. Once he was outside he began rising until he was out of range of the wards that surrounded the house. With a thought and large crack he was gone. The Dark Lord reappeared in the streets of London. Going from old memories he quickly found a pub that was hidden away from view. He strode past another pub with the name Knights emblazoned on it that had numerous girls laughing and drinking as he entered the Hellfire Club. As he entered he let the hood to his cloak fall and all could see his red eyes and reptilian appearance.

This particular bar had been a place he had frequented while working for Borgin and Burkes. The number of cursed weapons and rare poisons he had dealed for in this place was near astronomical. Some of the most important business and supernatural lessons had happened for him in this place. It was they that had set him onto the path to becoming the wizard he was today. He had learned many rare and powerful rituals here that had increased his power to the point it was at now. When he had been stuck in his wraith form they had helped to get him out of the country and into Albania once his plan to ride within the pet of Travers squib relative had fallen through.

The weak willed man had actually thought that he had exorcised him from his pet, but had only made it so that the man himself was easier to posses. The man had many interesting connections though and perhaps he should use those contacts as well once he was done here. The weaker style of magic that this man and his companions in their Council used could be of some use to him in the future as it was rarely used amongst wizards anymore. He would consider that after he was done with his current task. He needed to find someone or something that would serve him and take care of the fools attacking his forces.

The bartender looked surprised to see him. Instead of confronting him though, he welcomed him as if he was unaware of the ease with which he could end his life. "I believe that your party is waiting in there." The man said, as he handed a drink of some sort to the wizard while nodding towards a side room.

Voldemort nodded as he took a cautious sniff of the drink he then let his tongue dart out to taste the air around the drink. The beverage had a sweet smell to it along with a hint of blood to it. The Dark Lord took a sip, and found the drink to be surprisingly good. He then walked towards the room that the bartender had indicated and looked to see who and what awaited him. He kept his hand on his wand as he remembered that there were many dangerous beings that entered this place. As he entered the room he saw a round table that filled most of the room leaving just enough room for a person to walk around it or for someone to stand guard behind someone.

"Come on in Mate," a cockney accent mixed with joy and danger greeted him.

A single light shown down on the table, leaving the rest of the room in shadows. Sitting opposite from the door was a figure dressed all in black with platinum blonde hair wearing a large coat that gave him an imposing air. A cigarette was placed lazily in his mouth as ice chip like eyes met his own fiery red ones. It was as if someone had placed Severus Snape and Lucius Malfoy within a cauldron and somehow mixed the two wizards together. The being also looked like he could have been the elder son of Malfoy as well, or perhaps a squib son since he was dressed in form fitting muggle clothing. Sitting next to him was a dark haired beauty dressed in Victorian era clothing and had a porcelain doll at her side. The vacant expression was more disturbing in its own way than the demented grin that Bellatrix usually fixed on people.

The blonde figure stared at him for a moment before pulling his cigarette from his mouth and blowing a cloud of smoke into the air. He then turned to the childlike woman. "So this him then Pet? Is this the one that will help us deal with them?" The blonde questioned his companion hopefully. "If not I can go ahead and kill him, and we can go back to waiting for the one that we really want."

The casual and matter of fact manner that the person made the suggestion amused the Dark Lord and he decided to wait and see if these people decided that they wanted to start a fight with him or not.

The woman turned to look the Dark Lord over. Voldemort recognized the look in this woman's eyes. Just like Bellatrix, she could just as likely strike out at him as to offer him a seat. The Malfoy look alike actually seemed to be waiting on her decision on whether or not he was welcome amongst them. Considering the hard and calculating look in his eyes that would make the pair dangerous if he was as devoted to her as it appeared he was.

The pale woman rose from her seat and seemed to glide over towards him, her many skirts and petticoats rustling in the otherwise quiet room. Once she got near Voldemort she began walking around the wizard as she examined him.

The wizard had about as much as he could stand from the odd duo and was about to raise his wand when a cold voice echoed through the room.

"Don't try it scale face, you won't survive if you go and draw a weapon on Dru." The blonde figured threatened him darkly. "You draw on Dru there, I'll make you eat your intestines." The pair stared at each other as if daring the other to make the move that would start a fight between them.

The two were interrupted as the female began singing at the wizard. "Hiss, hiss little Snake Man." She crooned softly as she began to gleefully spin around the room. "You are the foe, the sweet Snake Man that doesn't want to die. You want to make a party for us all instead, so that we can bathe in the blood of the naughty heroes. The miserable little Golden Lions have nasty teeth and claws now and must be taught proper manners alongside of the Great Dane pups." Dru then turned to her companion. "This is the one that I've been waiting for my dear darling Spike."

'Spike?' Voldemort thought in surprise, he had heard of this creature before him. He was William the Bloody, one of the most ferocious of the European vampires of the 19th century. That would make the figure before him Drusilla the Mad. All that were missing were Darla the Seducer, and Angelus of the Angelic face. They were some of the most dangerous recorded vampires since the one known as the Master. "What is it that you want?" Voldemort questioned the pair carefully. While he was immortal, he did not relish the thought of having to repair his body or go through another ten years of being a Wraith when everything was going the way he wanted it to.

"Not much really," Spike returned shrugging somewhat casually as he settled back into his seat. "Just a chance to get some killing done is all. Word is that you're the one to talk to right now if it's a spot of violence that you be needing. First there's your whole take over the government thing you got going, then there's the rumors of you having some troubles with some people messing up your fun. That's where we come in. it'll simply be up to you to point us at the right ones that need killing." The blonde nodded to his traveling companion that was still twirling around the wizard. "Dru here has been working on a list for ya. She says that the ones you'll be wanting on for this group are on it. Took a bit oh doing, but I also managed to interrupt most of the list as well. There's me and Dru, the quiet one in the corner." He added nodding to one of the shadows where the Dark Lord could just make out a shifting figure. "And a few others from various places here and there to finish the band off."

"Who is he?" Voldemort questioned, as his eyes tried to pick out the features of the large figure that was hidden within the room's dark shadows.

"He's known as the Judge, not really a talkative one though." Spike returned to him carelessly. "He's got a real nifty trick though, so we keep him with us for now. That and he's Dru's latest birthday present as well." He added as an afterthought. "I've also found out where some of the others that Dru thinks might be helpful in this mess are. Thing is, they want to deal with you and not us. Figured you wouldn't have cared too much to pay for people ya didn't hire." Spike explained the wizard. "Their payment is either in money, or in favors from what I understand of em." The blonde then laid a piece of paper on the table and the wizard easily summoned it to his hand. Cute trick the vampire deadpanned as he saw the paper now on the other side of the room.

"Indeed it is," the wizard agreed with him. "Your companion is Drusilla the Mad," Voldemort said carefully as he finally voiced his identification of the pair of vampires. "That would make you Spike, or William the Bloody, the Slayer of Slayers. You are some of Europe's most feared and well known vampires."

"That we are mate, that we are." Spike said as he preened before the wizard. "So, you want our help or not? Rumor has it ya've recently lost yer hold on the wolves and the giants. Perhaps they need to know why it's better to have ya as a friend instead of an enemy." The vampire suggested with a knowing smile. "Hey bad news spread faster than anything else mate." Spike said as he saw the angered look of the Dark Lord. "There are those who's job it is to deal in information, and I always like to know just what it is that I'm dealing with. Someone saw yer lady bring in the body of yer werewolf king and the fight with the giants wasn't exactly quiet either. Helps to have eyes and ears all over. The whole mess with the giants actually had all of the weasels going and checking on all of yer bases to see what the response was. Now do ya want our help or not?" The vampire asked impatient at having to repeat himself.

Voldemort returned the smile with one of his own. "Yes, and while you do that, I shall investigate this." Voldemort said as scanned the list before him. The wizard's mind was already flashing into how this would best serve him. the remnants of the Ministry had said they were going to create a crack team to deal with the Muggleborn uprising and while they might have had one in mind this would work even better. With these beings he would release the nightmares that had worried Dumbledore onto them. He could also say that he was doing this to keep the purebloods safe and keep them happy. It would seem like he was protecting them when in reality the opportunity had merely fallen into his lap. While the line that usually separated the wizarding world and the supernatural word would be destroyed he could care less as long as he gained more power.

It also had the advantage that he would not be needlessly called back unless it was truly a problem. Without that distraction he would have more time to devote to his search for more power to use against Potter and his band as well.

"I shall have Lucius Malfoy arrange for a gathering of these beings and once you are together you can destroy those that have risen to try and stop my fun as you call it." The Dark Lord watched the pair hoping to see some recognition from the name and yet nothing came. It was times like these that he wished that vampires were not immune to mental arts. He did smile though as his mind began thinking of all of the targets a force like this would give him. Perhaps there were some more uses for Travers Squib relation. He knew the man was a player in the supernatural world, he would have to see if he had anything useful that he could use. "Follow me, I have to tell some of my followers of our alliance."

Spike nodded his head agreeably as he rose. "Sure thing, it'll be a real pleasure to meet with the minions. I'm sure that there will be someone interesting to play with as well." Spike added with a feral grin as his eyes glowed for a moment. The vampire's jacket billowed in an unfelt wind as he strode out of the room in a manner that was similar to Severus Snape. The vampire held his hand out to Drusilla who took the offered arm. "You coming or not big blue?" The vampire questioned over his shoulder. "I'm sure we can find you something nice to play with as well." The figure that had silently stayed in the shadows now moved into the light and the wizard saw a tall light blue skinned creature with a ring of horns around its head. The being paused in front of the wizard and looked at him curiously for a moment as if it was confused by something about the wizard before seeming to shrug it off and following after the pair of vampires

The Dark Lord nodded his agreement as he led the group out of the bar. He then created a portkey that whisked the group away from London and back to Malfoy Manor.

"Pretty fancy digs you got here." Spike noted as his eyes scanned the manor as they walked up the pathway.

Voldemort nodded as he led the trio up towards his current base. "All who work for are welcome here." He proclaimed to the pair. The vampires nodded and hesitantly entered the Manor. The wizard grinned as he saw that his invitation was enough to allow the vampires entrance. It seemed his take over of the Malfoy family home was much farther along than he had thought soon the very wards themselves would answer to his commands.

Spike looked around the wizard home carefully the moving pictures full of people that could have been relatives of his was a bit disturbing but it was nothing that he couldn't deal with. There was also something that he found annoying about them probably the I'm better than you way that they stuck their noses up at him similar to the way that Angelus used to do to him. He smirked back at the high and mighty portraits as he gave the group the finger. Several of the pictures actually understood the insult and visibly bristled at the vampire. He ignored the pictures of the nanc boys as he had other things to do. His eyes did bug out slightly when they entered a sitting room and he saw a figure that looked like it could be him if he could physically age another twenty years or so and beside him was a kid that could have been him as a teenager if he'd had natural platinum locks that is. Now if only they weren't both wearing poofter dresses or robes he might admit to them being some sort of relation.

The pair of knelt before Voldemort. "My Lord," the man greeted in a weak and defeated voice. His long hair hanging around his head hiding his face.

"Ah Lucius, meet our newest allies." Voldemort said waving towards the vampires and demon. "They shall be the ones to deal with the muggle borns that have risen up to challenge my rule that my Death Eater are unable to deal with."

Lucius raised his head to greet the Dark Lord's new followers and his eyes nearly bugged out in surprise as he saw a face so like his own staring back own at him. If one were to remove the filthy muggle clothing from this figure, and replace them with proper wizarding wear then he could be very well mistaken for a Malfoy. Normally the pureblood would have sneered at the lack of proper clothing of his guest or greeted him as a distant cousin but when those piercing blue eyes found him he froze. The eyes were hard chips without any mercy within them and were inspecting him like Greyback or Bella did. They were eyes that were thinking on the best way to kill him.

"Hello mate," the figure said as he drew out a long white object from a box and stuck the item between his lips. Then with a casual flip of his hand a silver lighter produced a flame and the figure lit the item up. "Names Spike."

The wizard realized that this must be one of those muggle cigarettes that he had heard of. He then realized that he knew that name as that of a famous vampire.

The man breathed in deeply before releasing a large cloud of smoke into the room. "So, you want to be a good little minion and show us around some." The figure demanded of him. "I need to know the layout after all just in case." He added absently.

The Malfoy head nodded after a confirming gesture from Voldemort. If he hadn't been so scared he might have taken offense of being given the job of a servant. Instead the wizard led the figure into the house. As the doors closed the group heard Voldemort snap orders towards Draco. "Boy summon Travers at once, I have a mission for him." The doors then shut cutting them off from whatever else they might have to say.

The group wandered the house with the two blonde men leading the way. Following behind them was a house elf cleaning up the ash and smoke damage that he was creating as he stomped through the manor. Spike paused in their discussion to examine the servant. "And what are you?" The vampire quizzed as he reached down and grabbed the elf by its towel and lifted it up to its face.

"I is being Nina, I is being a house elf and be doing the cleaning." The shaking elf returned to him.

"Some type of Brownie or some sort then?" Spike said, as he removed the cigarette and shoved the butt into the creature's head large bulbous nose grinding the cherry of the cigarette into the skin. The small creature howled in pain as it reached to grab at its face. The vampire used the moment of inattention to drop the creature and kick it across the room. I don't like being followed lets consider that a warning alright then? The vampire asked calmly as if it hadn't just attacked a defenseless creature.

"I understand sir." Lucius said, unsure what else the figure might do as he continued to lead them around the house hopefully they would leave his family alone.

* * *

Buffy looked down at the street below tossing her dark hair behind her back. She was currently dressed in her Spiderwoman gear which included black pants, jacket and boots with her uniform top, gloves, and mask being all that remained of the costume. Xander and Willow were dressed in their old costumes since they were actually good for sneaking around and Angel was dressed in all black with a belt full of infiltration equipment. The group was currently studying the small building that was a small distance away. Angel and Xander were located on opposite ends of the block while the girls held their posts directly opposite of the building.

According to the sources that they had this building was one of the safe houses that the Ministry had set up after their second attack on the Ministry. It seemed that even as arrogant as they were they learned from having most of their resources all confined to one area. After a jail break and a bombing even these guys were capable of learning from their mistakes and problems. Not that they would be able to bring back the ones that they had killed from the last visit's from the two groups. Of course it was a little to little to late they had already learned a lot about all of their operations before they began using decent security. The fact that between the two trio's they could now write a complete book set on the methods of espionage and combat. For every trick that the Ministry somehow managed to pick up from their experiences the group had about a dozen more that they could bring up against the Ministry. Their current target they had managed to get the confirmation from various sources. They had learned of the place through both the information that Moon Knight had managed to get from Greyback and then the information from Umbridge's files after that they had learned from the Weasley twins that a prisoner transfer was going to be happening this night. If they were lucky they would get the chance to deal with the prison transport as well. Each member of the group was currently stationed with M110 SASS. The automatic sniper rifles should allow them to take down anyone that got under their sights once their enemy showed up. The group now waited for when the Ministry Death Eaters would appear. Harry, Hermione, and Ron had opted out of the mission so that they could continue with their research on whatever it was that they needed to defeat Voldemort. It sure would make it easier if the Gryffindor trio would trust them with what they were looking for. The Gryffindor's seemed intent on keeping that particular aspect of their mission to themselves for the time being though. The fact that they didn't appear to have told anyone else about what they were looking for either helped some.

There was a large crack and Spiderwoman shrugged off her thoughts about the other half of their team and noticed that the double decker form of the Knight Bus had appeared. She quickly brought her comm to life. "Alright folks we got some action down there, let's see if we can't take them out of the game. Sound off."

"Punisher ready to go."

"Black Widow set."

"Angel here rifle is live."

"The only thing about you that is fang face." Punisher quipped at the vampire.

"Clear the air." Spiderwoman said before the pair could start bickering. "Giles, are you on air?" She questioned the Watcher.

"Yes, I am set for if anything should go wrong." The Watcher returned over the radio.

"Stand by then." Spiderwoman returned as she looked at what was going on through her scope. There was about eight wizards waiting outside of the giant bus while another group of about equal size were pushing a large crowd of people that contained men women and even a short green scaled figure that she presumed was one of the goblins that they had been informed about. Each of the prisoners was dirty from days of either living on the run or in prison cells, their hands were also bound by heavy manacles that weighted each of them down. Behind them came another set of guards that were about the same number as the ones already waiting outside. Combined they numbered nearly twenty witches and wizards one of the bigger one on one hits that they had done against the Ministry. The prisoners all appeared to be adequately cowed except for the goblin who kept flashing his fangs and speaking in its language.

"Fire," Spiderwoman commanded.

Four of the Ministry Aurors jerked as the bullets blasted through them. As the purebloods turned to check on their companions two more died while two of them spun as bullets sent them sailing into the ground with wounds that were now dripping blood. The remaining aurors hunkered down and raised their shields as they waited for the next attack leaving their prisoners to fend for themselves in finding some sort of safety from the attack.

"Let's go Black Widow." Spiderwoman said, the two arachnid themed heroines set their rifles down and leaped from the building. There were several screeches of fear as the witches and wizards saw the two approaching figures fall from the sky. One of the guards fell down and died when he rose to attack them forcing the other aurors to add more power to their shields. Once on the ground the pair moved to deal with the red robed wizards. Spiderwoman drew a pair of knives from her enchanted wristbands while Black Widow activated her Widow's Bite for lethal setting. Each girl took a target and fired on them, one wizard ended up with a knife in his arm and another in his gut. Two other wizards were thrown across the street as the giant electrical bursts burned through them. That was eight down permanently and three with severe injuries.

The Black Widow moved through the crowd giving her partner cover fire from her weapons while Spiderwoman moved through the crowd of prisoners and breaking the chains that they were wearing as the last chain fell the girls looked up as several beams of light impacted on the ground around them. The girls looked up to see more red robed figures boiling out of the building.

"Punisher, how man many?" Black Widow questioned, as she dodged several dangerous light beams while firing back with her weapons.

"There's about another ten or so in there." Punisher returned his friend. The two auror groups quickly regrouped and were now standing in apparent readiness for the fight.

"This just keeps getting better and better." The redhead muttered as she saw that the three that they had injured were being cared for the one Spiderwoman had injured with knives was being treated and the wizards were bumbling around the other two down members trying to figure what had happened to them to cause such large holes in their people. The dead were being ignored for the moment.

"We can worry about that later," Spiderwoman returned to her partner as she cartwheeled away from a spell. "Right now we need to stop them before they do anything else."

"Yeah hurry up, by our best estimates of their reactions we have anywhere from ten to thirty minutes before they send anyone to check out what's happening here." Another pair of bullets roared out and two holes now decorated the bus causing steam to shoot out as the radiator was destroyed. "Dang, I wanted to be the one to disable the bus." Punisher complained. Two bullets whizzed out taking out the tires though.

"Agreed, moving into engage," Black Widow said as she drew a gun and began firing on one of the aurors. The man looked scared for a moment as the hard hitting hollow tipped rounds blasted into his shield. It took three shots to break his shield and another two to the chest that laid him out. The redhead turned her sights on another red robed figure and repeated the process taking out another. The wizards turned to face the threat only for three more to fall to the sniper fire from the members up above. The girl dropped her gun though as the weapon was transfigured into a bird. The disgusted spy threw the animal to the side and drew another gun on the Death Eaters and resumed fire.

Spiderwoman took the moment of fear that the group had to pull another pair of combat knives and rush at the group as she got close the wizards noticed her and began firing at her. The girl responded by leaping over the group and landing behind them. As she came down she slashed a wizard in the back causing him to cry out in pain as he went down. Spinning the masked figure crossed her blades and took the throat out of another. While her blades were nowhere near as good as Wolverine's they still had enough of an edge on them to get the job done. She then flipped and landed on the shoulders of another auror. With a twist of her legs she broke his neck and then with a quick downward jab she drove her blades into the heads of two more. As she rode the wizard she had killed down an explosion hex caught her in the chest and sent her flying off of the wizard. She painfully slammed into a wall As she climbed back to her feet she saw that the others had rained bullet after bullet down on the shields of the remaining members of the Death Eaters. The goblin had even gotten into the rescue by driving its clawed hands forward and gutting two of the aurors.

The two girls looked around and realized that the only wizards still standing were the former prisoners. From start to finish the mission had taken nearly twenty minutes. There had simply been a lot more wizards inside than they had been expecting and had drawn the fight out a lot longer than they had expected. Many of the escapees were watching the pair with mixtures of distrust and revulsion.

"Why, did you do that?" One of them finally managed to croak out at them. "They're aurors, they were just doing their jobs. I'm sure that this is all some sort of misunderstanding and there was no reason to do that to them." There were subdued mutterings of agreement from all of the prisoners.

The goblin was the only one not doing that as it was busy slicing the ears off of its kills. "Well fought humans," the creature said, "I would love to bet on you in the arena." It cackled at the thought of the money that it would make from such a thing.

The girls smirked at the goblin before turning towards the humans. "We saved your lives is what we did. You might be in denial about it, but this country is at war." Spiderwoman reminded the group dryly as she looked them over. "I'm not going to argue over it either, you need to go now though before their backup arrives. Unless you think that they'll bother to listen to you."

Black Widow nodded her head in agreement. "I suggest that you try for muggle transportation and get out of the country. If you try any type of magical transport it would be dangerous as they're probably watching all magical methods right now. If you don't think that you can leave for whatever reason then you need to work on lying low."

"What can we do now though," a woman questioned in a meek voice, "the Ministry has gone crazy."

Black Widow rolled her eyes at this. "Your government has become blinded by its own power and prestige from having the likes of Dumbledore. Now you have to deal with the fall out of their decisions and choices having corrupted nearly all of you government. Get out of the country for now, or at the very least try and stay low. Now is not the time to confront them over everything. For the moment protect yourselves and your loved ones. If you think it would be better than get them out of the country. We gave you a chance to survive I hope that none of you decide to waste the chance that we have given you."

"Yeah, and then we can come back once Harry Potter deals with all this." One person said excitedly.

"Time to disappear Widow," Spiderwoman told her friend before she started saying anything else to the people.

The redhead nodded her head in understanding and joined her friend in scaling the walls of the building once they were at the top they looked down at the street full of witches and wizards and saw them either running or looking though the fallen bodies for wands or other supplies.

The four regrouped on a rooftop a few blocks away from where they had engaged the aurors. "Report," Spiderwoman said as she looked the others over.

"No damage," Punisher said.

"I'm good," Angel replied.

"Set," Black Widow returned.

"Great," Spiderwoman said, "we need to head back to the base. Punisher you take the rental," she said nodding toward the van. "Widow you've got the subway, Angel take the sewers, I'll take the rooftops. We'll meet back up at the base unless we need to use our emergency portkeys." The others nodded in agreement as they each began heading in their own directions to find their paths. "Giles I need you to keep an ear out for us in case something goes wrong." Spiderwoman said as she began bouncing from building to building.

"Understood," the Watcher returned to his Slayer.

Spiderwoman sighed as she began moving through the rooftops leaping and gliding from one building to the next hoping to drive anyone following them off their trail. It wouldn't surprise her if they had tried some sort of tracing device they needed to make sure that they were clean from being followed before they tried anything else. With that in mind each of them was doing their best to lose themselves into the hustle and bustle of the city. If there were any tracers on them then they would likely notice any wizards trying to follow them long before they got back to base and could get one of the Gryffindor trio to run a scan on them.

Spiderwoman was enjoying her trek through the rooftops, one of the things she had learned to love about her new powers and the city was the potential gymnastics that it gave her. She was in the middle of bouncing from one building to the next when a nearby window she had been next to a moment ago shattered as if from a bullet. The girl dove into a shadow as a bullet pierced a nearby brick. Having a spider sense would be so useful sometimes. While hiding in the shadows she followed the basic path such a bullet would have taken and found herself looking at a rooftop with several figures on it.

This Spiderwoman I am taking fire.

Acknowledged, switching to secondary route. Black Widow's voice returned to her friend.

"Confirm, do you require backup?" Punisher's voice crackled back at her over the radio.

"Neg that, appears to be a sniper team located on a building top. They're using hardware though instead of spellware though. This shouldn't take to long unless they have sort of surprise waiting for me up there." "Spiderwoman out."

Releasing the wall she dropped out of view and quickly made her way for the building. Once there she quickly began scaling the building as quickly as she could. Once she got to the top she slowly peeked over the edge of the building to see just who it was that was taking potshots at her.

"Do you see it?" A figure demanded as a small group appeared to be using night vision scopes to search for her.

"No sign sir, it looks like the creature has decided to flee from the area." Another man said.

Spiderwoman smirked if they were putting that much effort into looking for her the least she could is to greet them. Besides it wasn't like she was all that shy. Lifting herself with her hands she vaulted over the ledge and landed in the middle of the group. "Hey guys, miss me?" She questioned as she took the shock and surprise of her sudden appearance to get an idea as to who it was that she was dealing with. There were six guys in full commando gear and loaded down with weapons. There was a guy in a suit who was obviously acting as a director for them and finally there was a girl. Unlike the soldiers who looked like they were special forces or something. The girl was chocolate skinned, and was wearing Wal-Mart knockoffs. The only thing that gave a hint to the threat level that she actually represented was the giant machete that she wore on her back. The blade had a giant leather sheath and what appeared to be a bone handle either this girl was just for show or there was more to her than met the eyes. The fact that she was dressed as she was while the others were in state of the art equipment made one wonder.

"Catch you guys on the flip side." She said with a smile, as she flipped back over the group and sailed down the side of the building and into the alley.

"After it!" She heard the man in the suit order at the group.

Spiderwoman landed gracefully on her feet and turned to look up to see the group up above her dropping ropes over the edge and began rappelling down. Spiderwoman then watched as the girl merely grabbed one of the ropes in one hand and began running down the side of the building. Watching her she noticed that the girl had speed that was comparable to a vampire. As the girl got close the ground she leaped and landed on the ground.

"So I'm guessing you're the muscle to their guns?" Spiderwoman said as she sized the girl up trying to get a reading on the girl. The girl didn't say anything other than drawing her giant blade out and swung the blade at her. "Careful with that thing you'll knock someone's eyes out." Spiderwoman mocked as she ducked beneath a slash that would have taken her head off. Spinning on her heel she knocked the girl off her feet. She was forced to move back though as several bullets chewed the ground up at her feet. Turning the heroine noticed that the men had stopped their descent to cover the girl. The girl used her backing away to flip back up to her feet. Spiderwoman responded by leaping up onto the alley wall and tugging on the ropes forcing the men to focus on their grips instead of their weapons. Glaring the girl responded by clutching her sword and leaping at the meta-human with her sword raised over her head. Spiderwoman leaped out of the way before the girl got close enough. There was a grinding sound and a flash of sparks and when Spiderwoman looked she noticed that there was a jagged cut in the side of the building.

"That one way to get people's attention, or cut to the chase." Spiderwoman remarked dryly as she examined the damage. "Got to admit I've never had a need to attack a building though. Still better the wall than somebody. At least that's what my shrink used to say before I moved from the city, And trust me I've had a lot of people trying to get into my head." Spiderwoman landed on the ground and watched the girl warily as the dark skinned beauty lunged at her with an ax kick. The heroine caught the blow on her crossed arms and pushed her into the air.

While the girl sailed through the air she twisted her body so that her feet slammed into the wall and she quickly pushed off coming back at the costumed figure with her sword leading.

"You really take the whole silent and deadly stereotype to the extreme don't you?" Spiderwoman noted as she caught the extended weapon arm and rolled back planting her toe in the girl's stomach and then releasing sending her flying into the commando's that had finally landed.

The girl was the first one to get to her feet and put herself in a defensive position between Spiderwoman and the commando's.

"So do I even get a name, or are you guys going to keep up the silent and deadly routine?" Spiderwoman quizzed from her spot on the opposite end of the alley.

"Very well creature, if you tink you be needin to know who I am." The girl finally said with a heavy accent that Spiderwoman was fairly sure was French or Jamaican.

"She speaks," Spiderwoman said with mock surprise.

The girl ignored her and instead continued with what she had started saying. "I be Kendra, da Vampyre Slayer." She said stonily.

"I must have misheard you, cause I could have sworn you just called yourself the Vampire Slayer." Spiderwoman said as she eyed Kendra up and down. "Last I checked Buffy Summer's was the Slayer, and she's blonde, Californian, and has a reflection. At least she did the last time I checked that is." And she did have a reflection after all doing makeup right required a good mirror and reflection. She kind of wondered how vamps managed unless they had minions do it. Besides just because she was fighting an insane dark wizard in a hidden magical society didn't mean that she couldn't do it in style.

"What are ya talkin bout?" Kendra asked in obvious confusion. "Who be dis Buffy Summers?"

"Uh the Hellmouth Slayer," Spiderwoman returned to her, feeling somewhat indignant that the girl had never even heard of her. "She's short, blonde, lives in Sunnydale. You're saying that you've never even heard of her before? If you're going to be posing as a Slayer it helps if you know who the Slayer before you was at least." She lectured the girl in annoyance. She knew that India Cohen had come before her and liked to think that when the next Slayer came that the girl would know who she was.

"Ah ave nevah eard oh dis Buffy Summers." Kendra returned to her. "Now you shall be dyin me hand though so you will not hear of her again either." Saying this, the girl lunged at the other figure.

"Really?" Spiderwoman asked as she blocked the various punches and kicks being sent her way. "She only ever dealt with Lothos, the Master, Moloch, and kept the hellmouth from opening. You're sure none of this sounds familiar?"

"What Slayer Summers accomplished is of no concern for our mission tonight." One of the commando's said as they finally managed to get back to their feet. "Our orders, by the command of the Watchers Council and Director Travers is to stop the you strange beings that are attacking various places in England."

"If it be de will oh de Council." Kendra said in agreement as she increased her attack.

"Fine if that's the way that you guys want to play it." Spiderwoman said coldly.

The Council operatives nodded and raised their weapons three of them drew large knives while the other three drew back so that they could use their guns while Kendra readied her giant blade.

"Let's dance," Spiderwoman said as she got into her own position.

Kendra moved in first thrusting forward with her blade. Spiderwoman side stepped the attack then moved in trapping the sword arm under her own a head but surprised the girl and then a twist and the girl was disarmed. She took the sword and threw it at the wall smirking as she heard it drive itself into the brick. She then tossed the Slayer after the blade. She turned to face the wet works team and began running at them trying to keep the knife men in between herself and the gunmen. As she got closer, she had to admit these guys were a completely different type of Council folk than she was used to. Instead of the blustering, tea sipping, book reading, tweed wearing Watchers that she was used to dealing with. These guys were dangerous in ways that before she never would have understood before Halloween.

It did make her wonder about the Council though guys like these were not cheap to supply or train, and somehow the Council could field at least a half dozen of them. If they could do that she wondered where this money was when it came to her training and supplies since Merrick had only a knife and an abandoned warehouse and Giles equipment was actually stuff that he had brought with him. Why were Slayers denied this type of gear and equipment?

She shelved those thoughts away as she summoned another pair of her daggers and launched her weapons at the blade wielders. The first two dodged out of the way while the third tried to meet her. She leaned back and the blade passed over her head and a powerful punch to the gut lifted the man up and over the gunmen to slam painfully into the wall. She ducked as the knife men came at her from behind and landed on her hands spinning on her hands her outstretched feet slammed into the head of the other two men. She then did a handspring from the ground to the alley wall to avoid the bullet and began running at the gunmen who were trying to bring their weapons around to bear on their quick and agile target.

"You really need to learn how to aim those things the idea is to not shoot the people working with you." The vigilante said, as she dodged a couple of random shots. While running Spiderwoman fired a pair of bio blasts that knocked two of the gun men back into the wall as the poison flowed through them. She then performed a jump kick that nailed the last member of the commando's. not about to take any chances she then fired weak bio blasts at each of the Watchers to keep them down and out. A visit to the hospital would pump all of the toxins out of their systems.

Spiderwoman then turned to looked towards Kendra who had finally managed to King Arthur her machete. Well not quite, since the tip of the blade had been broken off instead of waiting to work the weapon free.

"Its just you and me now Kendra." The masked figure told her adversary. Kendra swung again only for Spiderwoman to catch her wrist and tear the blade out of her hands again only this time she tossed it farther down into the alley and shadows. "You wanted to prove what a big and bad Slayer you are well now's your chance." She informed the girl egging her on.

"I will kill ya," Kendra swore as she lunged forward, her fists swinging.

Spiderwoman nodded as she brought her own hands up and began blocking the attacks being launched at her. A spin kick to the gut sent the girl sprawling. The Slayer climbed back to her feet and lunged again. Spiderwoman sighed as she fought the girl. This wasn't even a contest for her. She was a lot faster and stronger than the Slayer was or could likely hope to be without some sort of magical upgrades of some sort. What she lacked in power and even skill though she more than made up for in bull headedness though. Spiderwoman almost growled as the girl shakily climbed back to her feet. It was time to stop playing with the girl she had other things to do than to play with the new slayer or whatever the hell she was. She had fought her originally to try and figure out what she was. Unfortunately her moves were almost exact replica's of hers hen she was just a Slayer. As far as she could tell she was really fighting with a Slayer, or the closest thing that there was to one. She backhanded the dark skinned Slayer into the wall. Play time was over she needed to finish this and get back to base. "Stay down, there's no reason for the two of us to be fighting." She told the slayer, before glancing at the Council wet team that had been sent along with the Slayer to take her down. You may not believe but you and I have more in common than you would think. I didn't want to fight, but you and your friends were the one that thought it was a good idea. The only people I've been hurting are dark wizards you should think on that."

She waited a moment before noticing that the Slayer had faded into unconsciousness. Two members of the wet team were unconscious due to her venom blasts and would be in the hospital for a while. Spiderwoman moved quickly and searched the Council team for anything of value taking the weapons and gear that they had. With this gear they would be saved the need in replacing some of their own equipment and it didn't matter if these guys were found since they were Council rejects and would probably be back out on the streets with all of the gear within an hour. The way they had the humiliation of having been beaten and a lot of lost gear that they would have to replace. Spiderwoman hesitated over the fallen Slayer before she left her with the rest of the Council team. They were too busy to babysit a Slayer who thought of them as the enemy.

The moment of hesitation was all that the girl needed to come out of her fake unconsciousness and try and use sheer muscle against her. Spiderwoman tossed the girl into the wall several times before she was sure the girl was out this time. She looked up to the top of the building and could see that there was a man standing there calmly watching as the final member of the group fell to the ground. She yanked on a couple of the ropes and tied Kendra's arms and legs together before shouldering the equipment and giving a mocking salute towards the command's. She then activated her portkey and disappeared.

* * *

She reappeared in the warehouse and quickly disarmed herself while under the watchful eyes of Punisher and Black Widow. She finally removed her mask and nodded to her friends. "Seems that the evil wizard of Oz has gone and done some recruiting outside of the usual lines." The blonde said.

"Is this our fault?" Punisher asked as he lowered the gun.

"I sincerely doubt that, at the most I would say that you advanced his time table for these sorts of things." Giles said as he walked toward the girl to examine her for injuries. "While going over the records of known Death Eaters and pureblood supporters I came across a rather disturbingly familiar name. Travers, is a marked Death Eater however he also happens to have an uncle. An uncle who just so happens to currently be leading the Watcher's Council right now." He added ominously as he nodded towards a folder that Angel was currently skimming through. "If I were to guess, I would hypothesize that the dark wizard is expanding his operations now by taking control of the various smaller mystical societies that operated somewhere between being normal and having magical powers. He's looking for extra power right now to ensure his win and he's looking everywhere for it. Whether he knows what it means exactly to control the Council is debatable. "

"Alright, how did everyone's extraction go?" Buffy asked as she looked at the others. Xander seemed alright, while Angel and Willow were both covered in what looked like sewage.

"Next time, I think I want the rooftop escape." The redhead grumbled to her friend as she ran the edge of her knife against the bottom of her boot wipe some of the muck off of them.

"I may just let you have it." Buffy returned as she began trying to think what it could be that Voldemort was searching for if he was willing to take on the societies that existed in between. She only hoped that there were no powerful supernatural communities near here right now or they would all be in trouble. She needed a shower and food though before she could decide whether or not they were in trouble. All of this made one wonder what else Voldemort would throw at them before they were through with all of this though.

* * *

Who knows when I'll update again hope it was worth the wait.


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